


The Storm Hawk and the Dragon

by SyfyGuy2



Series: The Storm Hawk and the Dragon [1]
Category: Storm Hawks (Cartoon), The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Dragons, Other, Post-Hobbit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:09:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 123,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27871321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SyfyGuy2/pseuds/SyfyGuy2
Summary: After being defeated at Lake-Town, Smaug is revived to an unrecogniseable world many Ages later: Atmos. Piper now finds herself intricately bound to the dragon that is terrorising the skies, in a manner which may yet determine the fate of all Atmos.
Relationships: Smaug (Tolkien) & Other(s)
Series: The Storm Hawk and the Dragon [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2187507
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	1. A Different Path Begins

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, and welcome to my Hobbit/Storm Hawks crossover fanfiction! (Also both my first crossover and my first Alternate Universe story, whoopee!!) Based on an original idea I had for a pairing, it’s come very far from the original concept before I found and took charge of formulating something that worked, and created this.
> 
> This story’s setting is that Arda (that’s the world of Middle-Earth for anyone here who isn’t a Tolkien nerd) and Atmos are the same world in vastly-separate eras of its history, that are hundreds of thousands if not millions of years apart from one-another. And I should probably say this now (feel free to call me out as bit arrogant for assuming you’d assume this), but this story is NOT a romance (yet), though it admittedly has a little bit of a focus on a rather twisted relationship between two mortal enemies. This story begins during the opening of ‘The Battle of the Fives Armies’ in The Hobbit, and the episode ‘Forbidden City’ of Storm Hawks.
> 
> And yes, this fanfiction will be going off of the film version of The Hobbit and Smaug.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I do not own 'Storm Hawks' or 'The Hobbit;' they both belong to their respective copyright handlers and creators. I only own any and all OC or AU parts in this story.  
> Also, a great big loud thank you to DONOVAN94 for being my Beta reader with this chapter! You rock, girl!!
> 
> So, without further ado, I introduce you to:

** The Storm Hawk and the Dragon **

Great, massive wings worked perfectly to hold the great dragon Smaug's body aloft as he soared low over the burning wooden town, working yet another rage-fuelled stream of molten fire into what was already a glowing inferno of a town below him.

The screams of the burning Lake-people rose up into the air to greet Smaug, as though one with the very flames and smoke themselves. And oh, what sick, bloodthirsty satisfaction they brought the Dragon-Dread as he destructively worked his way through his ever-present rage and fury. He had allowed the miserable Men of the Lake to continue living in his shadow so close to his rightful domain, yet still they had dared to conspire against him! And now, they saw his wrath and retribution for their nerve in daring to attempt to oppose him!

Every new chorus of screams, every blast as the flames he summoned tore through all in their path, was like music to Smaug's ears. He continued to circle around in the air and unleash trail after trail of more fire upon the wooden town that was already burning alive.

At one point as he unleashed another fiery torrent, Smaug momentarily swerved in the air to spare a glance at the tall, silhouetted mountain in the distance. Ah, the Lonely Mountain, his kingdom, the domain that he had claimed as rightfully his with all the great treasures inside so long ago. No doubt the dwarvish filth that had come crawling back to his Mountain for his gold after 200 years (and the strange, unknown Thief in the Shadows with them), were now watching helplessly in despair, from where Smaug had left them at the Mountain to see their Lake-friends _die_ for helping them against him!

After another several torrents of fire added to the flames, it was just as Smaug was circling round again above the burning Lake-Town that his fiery gold eyes caught and narrowed on a particular human, who was moving from rooftop to rooftop, carrying a bow and arrow, avoiding the worst of the flames as he made his way towards his destination. Smaug swooped down low and made a beeline across the burning Lake-Town straight for the man, outstretching his large, stocky, clawed rear legs to catch the rooftop-leaping Lakeman… and missed. His talons only meeting crumbling wood and tiles whilst the Lakeman safely rolled away!

But it mattered not, the mortal was of no threat to him, and Smaug quickly resumed his general onslaught of the town. Soaring up high again, Smaug proceeded to dive just as he unleashed another stream of burning fire upon the town, outstretching his wings to hold him as he came low; a new screaming chorus rising up to greet him from the wooden buildings that exploded as his shape passed overhead.

It wasn't long after that that the arrows started firing – first one which twanged off Smaug's right breast, then after only a few moments, another which also just harmlessly bounced and rolled away along Smaug's side; his impenetrable scales deflecting the meagre projectiles harmlessly. The arrows seemed to be coming from the same point, and Smaug saw that it was the same Lakeman whom he had seen earlier, futilely firing arrow after arrow at him from Lake-Town's high bell tower.

* * *

But Smaug was not the only one who noticed this sight. Amongst the blaze-lit water-streets of Lake-Town, there was one boat in particular amongst the many struggling to navigate through the destruction to safety; occupied by four dwarves, three human children, and a leading female wood-elf. As this boat passed by the town centre and the bell tower came into view, the sole human boy's eyes widened in horror at what he saw.

"Da!"

The boy's two sisters gasped in utter horror as they saw it too.

"DA!" one of them cried out loud in distress as they sighted their father firing arrow after arrow at the monstrous dragon flying by.

"He hit it!" one of the dwarves cried out with hope as they all saw it. "He hit the dragon!"

"No…" the elf whispered with dread, her eyes remaining glued to the sight overhead.

"He did! He hit his mark, I _saw_!" The dwarf insisted.

"His arrows cannot pierce its hide," the elf responded with pragmatic despair in her voice. "I fear nothing will…"

The boy lowered his eyes as the elf's words overcame them all. Then he shifted his gaze over to the foot of the Town Master's statue, to the lone bobbing boat where he'd hidden his father's weapon under a bundle... and his eyes narrowed with strong determination. Before anyone else in the boat could see what the boy was doing, he'd stood up and taken hold of an overhead fishing line's hook, letting it swing and carry him away from the boat onto the town centre's docks, even as the others desperately screamed and called after him to come back.

"Leave him!" the elf called over them as the boy made off and was lost to sight. "We cannot go back!"

* * *

The Lakeman, the bowman, paused as he turned to reach for another arrow – he was on his last one. He would have to make it count.

Then he took the arrow up and mounted it on his bow, and moved quickly onto the bell tower's ledge, stretching his bow out in front of him as the dragon came round in his direction once more. He fired… And the arrow helplessly bounced away off the dragon's shoulder.

Smaug whooshed by harshly alongside the bell tower, brushing it as he did so, and gave a bellowing roar of acknowledging challenge at the tower's occupant as he began to circle round once more. He had allowed the bowman to continue helplessly firing shot after shot at him just to prove how futile it was and how unstoppable he was, but now he had tired of it and it was time to finish it.

The bowman could only stare helplessly from where he'd fallen to the floor after the dragon's silhouette, his desperate stand against the beast having failed.

"Da!" The bowman turned over to the sound, and found himself looking at the terrified face of his son, poking his head up through the bell tower's trapdoor.

"Bain. What are you doing?!" The bowman exclaimed in shocked distress. "Why didn't you leave?! You were supposed to leave!"

"I came to help you," the boy replied, his voice barely above a trembling whisper.

"No!" the bowman denied furiously, his voice filled with despair as he looked out at the burning devastation once more. "Nothing can stop it now…!"

"This might!" The bowman turned back at his son's brave words to see him pull what looked like a giant metal harpoon up into view through the trapdoor. It was a quarrel, forged of a pure black metal. Its head was heavy and twisted, forming a partial helix-like shape… and set in the space in the centre of that head, was a clear, sparkling, silvery-white jewel. The black arrow, the one the bowman had inherited from his ancestor who had tried to slay this very same dragon so long ago.

"Bain…" The bowman took the black arrow's shaft in his hands, then held a comforting hand to the side of his terrified son's head. "You go back. You get out of here now!" But what neither father nor son noticed was that Smaug had just completed his circle and was coming straight in for the bell tower.

"DA!" the boy, Bain, screamed out as he saw it past his father. The bowman looked too as Smaug's terrifying form came swooping straight in at them, his body rearing back as he splayed out his hind legs. In one swift move, the dragon's hind legs had torn the entire top of the bell tower away as it swooped overhead.

"BAIN!" The bowman screamed his son's name at the top of his voice as he looked to where his son had fallen overboard with the entire tower roof. Bain held on to the ledge with all the strength in his free hand's fingers as his other held on to the black arrow, his face filling up with utter terror at the fall below him. The bowman quickly lunged forward and grabbed hold of his son, pulling him up with all his might onto the small broken platform that remained of the bell tower.

A great distance across the burning town from them, Smaug's form came in low for a landing, touching down swiftly and perfectly upon the wooden shacks which held his great weight.

The bowman plucked the black arrow up from the white-knuckled hands of his son's lying, petrified form, and proceeded out onto the ledge of the bell tower's remains, standing tall and brave and composed as he prepared to face the enemy. The dragon in turn was righting itself from where it had landed a great distance away, still a tall and intimidating figure even at this distance.

Smaug whirled his blazing fiery gaze upon the one who had dared to strike against him.

" _Who_ are _you_ , that would stand against _MEEEE_?!" Smaug called out loud and clear to his opponent; his voice was a deep, resonant and terrifying sound which made the bowman quake in his boots even from this far away.

The bowman was utterly trembling on the inside, but he didn't let his composure falter as he stood and faced the dragon. He reached to his side for where his bow had fallen… and felt his hope falter as he pulled up two broken pieces of a bow-limb held together by the string.

"Now that _IS_ a pity…" Smaug smirked tauntingly as he too saw the bowman's predicament, revelling in the bowman's distress as he looked back at him. "What will you do now…BOWMAN?" The bowman could only helplessly glance from his broken bow to the useless rubble of the bell tower all around him as Smaug's taunting continued.

"You are _forsaken_ ," Smaug hissed, slowly moving closer along the burning wooden houses. He adjusted his weight as they protested and crumbled underneath his claws and forelegs. "No help will come…"

Smaug hummed lowly to himself as if in thought as he narrowed his eyes on the two occupants of the bell tower. Then his face lit up with cruel satisfied glee as he realised what he was looking at, a long black tongue snaking out of his mouth to lick at his sharp teeth.

"Is that your child?" Smaug questioned slowly as his glowing fiery eyes fixed on one in particular. Bain had by now gotten back up from the floor and was wide-eyed with terror as the dragon had its eyes fixed straight upon him. "You cannot save him from the _fire_ …" Smaug hissed on viciously as he continued to slowly come closer. "He will… BURNNN!" Smaug's eyes widened maddeningly at the last word and his savage, cruel smirk grew wider.

But that last taunt had been a grave mistake.

As Smaug watched and continued to slink in, the bowman thrust either piece of bow hard through one of the bell tower's still-standing support beams, jamming them in place with fierce strength. The bowstring hung out in front of him between the beams as he fixed the black arrow's nock into place and pulled it back hard and taut. The arrow's jewelled head hung out far in front, aimed straight out at its target beyond… and before it, standing rigid but terrified as a willing stand; was Bain.

"Hold still, son…" the bowman whispered to his son as he leaned back with the bowstring, holding it taut. Beyond Bain's shoulder, the great, towering figure of Smaug continued to slowly advance over the flaming town towards them. "Hold still…"

"Tell me… _WRETCH_ ," Smaug's voice suddenly called out, dripping spite and cruelty, "how now shall _you_ challenge _ME_?!" How indeed? For even with a black arrow, without a dwarvish windlance to fire it at sufficient velocity, the humans had no hope of punching through his impenetrable scales!

But as Smaug moved his body on closer, something on his chest caught the bowman's eye – a small, dark scar where a single scale was missing, the legendary weak spot that the tales and songs told of. And the bowman let a smirk tug at the corner of his mouth as he realised what he’d just found.

But Smaug didn't notice.

"You have… nothing left," he taunted savagely, "but your DEATH!" That was the last warning the humans got before, with a deafening roar of primal rage, Smaug came charging straight for them. On instinct, Bain's eyes began to shift to look at the oncoming beast behind him-

"Bain!" his father's voice commanded softly. "You look at me." Bain's face turned back from the bellowing monster to his father. " _You look at me_." The bowman held the bowstring back firmly taut as the gigantic charging shape beyond his son's shoulder continued getting bigger and closer.

"A little to your left," the bowman commanded. Bain shifted his position the very slightest. "That's it." The bowman pulled back his hardest on the bowstring, focus and determination coming over his face.

Smaug's face was twisted into a savage leer of utter bloodlust, his eyes shining maddeningly. The front of his chest came into view as he pounced.

With a final roar, the bowman let go… Bain's breath hitched as the bowstring just missed his neck. The black arrow shot whistling, straight through the air above the burning town…

THUNK!

And punched squarely through Smaug's weak spot deep into his chest!

A loud whine of shock escaped Smaug's jaws and his glowing eyes bulged in his head. His body immediately swerved off-course, sending him brushing past the bell tower. The bowman cried out for his son to hold onto him as they were sent toppling towards the icy waters below, while Smaug's body was sent hurtling down into the burning remains of Lake-Town.

" _AAARGH!_ "

Smaug's body went skidding and bulldozing blindly through the burning town (triggering a few faint screams from the few still-living souls that remained), as he screeched loud and clear against the mortal agony shooting throughout his body; and against the strange other force that his mind registered spreading through every cell of him from where the black arrow had embedded itself inside him, one which what little of his mind that remained coherent could recognise as _magic_.

Within seconds, on pure instinct, Smaug was airborne, pumping and thrashing his wings madly against the agonising pain and the magic invading him; taking him above the orange glow of the flames and the bloodred-illuminated haze of the smoke, into the cold, moonlit night air.

Smaug's body thrashed and twisted wildly through the air high above the burning Lake-Town, his eyes bulging in his head, the glow of his fire building at the back of his throat but refusing to usher out as though being strangled back, roaring against the agony and alien magic that was coursing through him. But every second, Smaug's thrashing movements were quickly growing weaker and sloppier, whilst both awareness and the blinding, pain-fuelled haze across his consciousness began to fall away on him as the magic force's pull attempted to drag Smaug's entire being down; down into something that could only be equated with the deepest, darkest, most eternal slumber of all.

Smaug's jaws opened wide to the sky as though to scream out once more, but nothing so much as a keen whine got through. As his struggle ended, Smaug felt every inch of his body begin to seize up, going rigid and cold. And with the very last shred of awareness, Smaug knew the sensation of falling… Then all consciousness faded away on the Dragon-Dread as his gigantic, cold body went plummeting down towards the flaming wreckage below.

* * *

The fall of Smaug, last of the great drakes in Middle-Earth, marked the beginning of a new age of rebuilding and prosperity for both the dwarves of Durin and the humans of the north in the land, and it would go on to be crucial in the final defeat of the Enemy of Middle-Earth in a final War no more than sixty years later.

And from there, as the world always did with the passage of time; it moved on. Smaug the dragon, Erebor and Lake-Town, and eventually even Middle-Earth itself, all passed away into legend as many of the races of old – from the elves and dwarves to orcs and giants – faded away from the world that was left to the dominion of mankind. And from there, as hundreds of thousands of years passed – epochs beyond mortal count, of change, revolution, extinction, erosion, growth and evolution; the one long-ago tale of a mountain reclaimed from a dragon had passed out of all knowledge in the world.

But it was here, many, many Ages after that time in the early world; in a time after so much change, evolution and catastrophe that the world, and all the life and landscape within it, was now completely unrecogniseable from what had once been known as Arda; that the different path begins with the return of a beast from a primeval time. And that story begins with two young adolescents racing hard through the ruin halls of what was known as the Forbidden City on the mountaintop Terra Xoam…

* * *

The young red-haired Sky Knight Aerrow's Skimmer sped hard and fast in its motorcycle mode through the long, dark, ancient corridors; his best friend Piper following close behind on her own Heliscooter as they swerved sharply round each and every corner, driving hard and fast through the temple maze of the Forbidden City. In several more sharp twists and turns, their two sky-rides came upon a short, narrow tunnel and they shot through within a second. Emerging out into a wide open chamber, Piper and Aerrow screeched their rides to a hard stop, kicking up clouds of dust as they did so before their rides came to a rest right across the chamber from where they came in.

Piper gave a long breath out and put a hand to her heart as the rush and tension from the hard race left her. Aerrow's green eyes began to scan around the room they were in, and quickly landed on something on the wall behind them.

"Piper, look!"

Piper followed his gaze, and let out a gasp at the sight of the door ahead of them.

"The inner sanctum…" she murmured in awe. As if on cue, the tribal face-decorated door began to open up at the jaws to the two Storm Hawks, a bright violet light flashing out from within as it did. Grinning as they realised they'd reached their destination in time, Aerrow and Piper put their rides into gear and dismounted them. They were just crossing the short distance from their rides to the open door when a cold voice called out quietly.

"Stop right there." Aerrow and Piper both whipped round, startled, to see a familiar and unwelcome muscular figure step out from behind a shadowed pillar towards them, his eyes narrowed and cold as he slipped a metal cutlass out from his belt.

"Domiwick!" Within a second, Aerrow had his twin lightning-blades out at the ready, while Piper in turn had her crystal staff up, both of them poised and ready for a fight as I.J. Domiwick came to a stop five feet in front of them.

"The treasure chamber is mine and _mine alone_!" he exclaimed with aggression.

"We don't take orders from _Cyclonian stooges_ ," Aerrow spat back, pointing a lightning-blade. But then he felt a familiar hand squeeze his shoulder and turned his head at the gesture.

"Leave him to me, Aerrow," Piper said with quiet conviction.

"We'll take him together," Aerrow insisted.

"No," Piper replied calmly, her voice deadly serious as she extended her staff out in front of her, her amber eyes narrowed on her traitorous former-idol. "This is _personal_. Get inside, go!"

Aerrow gave a nod of acknowledgement to Piper before he turned and ran ahead into the doorway. As soon as the young Sky Knight was gone, Domiwick's crystal-powered energy cutlass flared to life and he brought it swinging down on his opponent. Piper quickly blocked Domiwick's first attacks with her staff, then swung a few of her own at him which he dodged; the two opponents trading strikes, blocks and dodges as their fight commenced.

* * *

Up ahead, it was only a couple minutes' worth of running down the long tunnel before Aerrow ran out into what could only be the Forbidden City's treasure chamber. A bright light from on the central pedestal cast an unearthly violet glow across the wide, spacious chamber, wispy shadows like those cast by water from a swimming pool rippling across the treasure-lined walls and seeming to dance in the very air itself.

But Aerrow took no notice of these things, for his focus was on what was on the pedestal as he ran up to it: a statue, carved in the same likeness of a tall, beautiful woman in robes with waist-length smooth hair that he had already seen once today: the Oracle. And held in the statue's hands, encased in a frame of gold and seeming to cast the strange glow across the chamber, exactly as Domiwick's book illustrations had shown it, was the Oracle Stone: the fabled crystal that was said to show the future. Aerrow smiled as he realised the Cyclonians hadn't gotten here first, and reached out a hand towards the stone… then pulled back as he thought better of this.

"Wait. Too easy…" Aerrow remembered Piper's words about misleading first impressions with this place, and how he and his squadron had already seen the tricks and twists to prove it true. "This has got to be a trick."

"Quite true, Aerrow." Aerrow looked up in surprise at the sound of the calm, smooth woman's voice, and was surprised to say the least as he realised _it was the statue talking_. "Not all is what it seems." A second, transparent blue image of the woman seemed to press out of the statue as she spoke.

"You… know my name?" he asked of the statue, the Oracle, shocked. There was a pause without reply from the statue, as though she were (metaphorically) smiling at him.

"I've been expecting you," the Oracle told him. "After all, I can see the future."

"I've got a lot of questions, uh, we all do," Aerrow said quickly. "They made me write them down." He pulled out a note and quickly started listing off to the ancient spirit. "Okay. Finn wants to know if he gets rich, Piper wants to know what she's meant to do with her life, Junko wants to know if he ever finds his missing lucky shovel, Stork wants to know if the cure for bog measles is discovered."

"And you?" the Oracle asked of him calmly, patient as the stone itself.

"I just want to know one thing," he murmured earnestly. "Do we win?"

"Ah. See for yourself." A bright flash spread out from the Oracle Stone through the chamber, swallowing up everything as the images of a vision began to form and Aerrow was shown the future.

_Aerrow saw Cyclonis victorious._

_He saw an Atmos of neverending storms and darkness and despair, where Cyclonians ruled and Atmos was Cyclonia. And there, amongst the barren, fire-pelted landscape, he saw his friends, manacled in the chains of slaves…_

Aerrow was stunned for the worse as the vision ended and the treasure chamber returned.

"I can't let that happen!" he all but whispered out, noble conviction in his voice.

"Set me free, and a different path begins," the Oracle told him.

Aerrow was hesitant, as though not daring to believe it would be that easy, or not certain how to accomplish that, or both. He gave one narrowed, uncertain glance down at the statue's base. Then in two swift moves, he'd taken out one of his blades and slashed the stone open. Almost immediately, brilliant, blinding pale-blue light began to burst out through the spreading cracks. The Oracle's image seemed to open its mouth wide in a silent cry before, with a great flash, the statue completely crumbled.

As the light faded and it was safe to look again, Aerrow looked down at the remains on the pedestal, and for a moment he started to fear that he'd done something horribly wrong. But then a wispy, ghostly figure began to swirl up from the rubble into the air in front of Aerrow, and faced him with wise, glowing white eyes. It was the Oracle, her freed spirit glowing the same bright violet as the Oracle Stone, her long hair flowing behind her as she smiled in gratitude.

"Thank you… Sky Knight," she whispered. Then she turned her head upwards and soared away through the ceiling, the unearthly glow in the chamber fading as the Oracle was gone.

Aerrow stood there staring wide-eyed up after her for a moment, but then his stupor was quickly broken as the entire chamber began to groan and rumble in protest all around him. He noticed and leapt back out of the way just in time to avoid being crushed by a falling pillar, and seconds later, he was sprinting back out the way he'd come in as the chamber began to collapse behind him.

* * *

Outside the treasure chamber, Piper and Domiwick were continuing to trade blows and dodges, when, as Domiwick tried to land several slashes at Piper, she took the opportunity to leap up into the air and land a hard, painful-looking kick to his head. Domiwick went sliding backwards across the temple floor, groaning, his cutlass sliding away. Not a moment later, Domiwick heard the roar of approaching sky-rides, and almost at once, Finn and Junko came roaring in on their Skimmers, and Stork on the Stork-Mobile.

"This guy giving you trouble?" Junko asked Piper as they all braked to a stop on sides surrounding Domiwick.

"Not anymore," Piper said with a victorious smile as Domiwick's face pinched with fear. Not a second later, Aerrow's voice called ahead from in the treasure chamber's doorway.

"Everybody out! This place is coming down!" And right on schedule, the structure all around them began to groan and shake and threaten to crumble as Aerrow came sprinting out.

"But what about my treasure?" Finn asked, sounding heartbroken.

"There isn't any," Aerrow quickly half-lied with a slight roll of his eyes. “Move!”

"But what about my future…?" Finn, sounding like Christmas had just been cancelled, pressed on, even as the chamber continued to destabilise all around them.

"Move, Finn!" Aerrow ordered as he reached and mounted his sky-ride, Junko and Stork already speeding off ahead. Finn childishly pouted to himself, then drove off after his friends. But Aerrow and Piper didn't speed out with them.

"Domiwick!" Aerrow called out to the traitor-explorer as he righted himself, even as bits of the ceiling began to rain down all around them. "The Oracle is gone. Get out while you can!"

"I'll see for myself!" Domiwick hissed back at them, the dark throes of greed overtaking his common sense. Then before either Storm Hawk could do anything to stop him, he was sprinting off in the opposite direction, down the tunnel to the treasure chamber as the pieces of ceiling raining down got bigger.

"Domiwick!" Piper called after him, too late.

"Piper, let's go! Now!" Aerrow shouted, and the two quickly turned their sky-rides and blasted off after their friends through the other doorway. And not a moment too soon, as pillars started to fall down next.

The Storm Hawks' rides all sped at full-throttle out of the temple, down the long, winding dirt road from the Forbidden City; as the entire cavern in which it was built shook and trembled all around them. Within several seconds, they were all roaring out through the tunnel back to the outside, as a cave-in of rocks and dust rained down behind them.

* * *

Domiwick sat defeated amongst the Forbidden City's now-empty treasure chamber, the Oracle's treasured power gone, with nothing to show but the empty casing that had once held the Oracle Stone, as the familiar rev of Snipe's armoured sky-ride approached. Domiwick pouted at the prize and glory he had been denied, as he let the useless gold trinket fall from his hand to the floor. Snipe gave a loud, snide laugh of childish satisfaction at the snobbish explorer's defeat.

"Can I have a…lift?" Domiwick asked him in a slightly high, oily voice.

"You're the smart one," the brutish Talon commander growled coldly, his voice taunting and devoid of sympathy. "Find your own way out." With that, Snipe turned and revved his ride away hard, kicking up dust behind him as he left Domiwick lost and alone in the depths of the Forbidden City.

* * *

But unbeknownst to either Domiwick or the Cyclonians or the Storm Hawks, the Oracle Stone was not the only secret that the Forbidden City had been built to hide, and the Oracle's release had just marked the awakening of something far older than the Oracle Stone's power to see the future.

Far below the Forbidden City, ancient subterranean tunnels ran down to much deeper caves and chasms than where the Forbidden City was located, eventually opening out to a great cavern near the heart of Terra Xoam that was forever silent and still enough to seem as though it had never been touched by life. And within that cavern, dominating a massive portion of the immense space all on its own, there lay a body – the body of a _dragon_. Except this was not a dragon that belonged in Atmos; it was a beast from a time entire Ages ago, when the world was very much different to how it was now. It was a massive, powerful, terrible serpent, of a race that had rightfully instilled terror in the hearts of mortals in their time; by their terrifying wrath and cunning and savagery, and the fire and ruin they wrought upon all. It was a fire-drake of the Elder Days.

And it was not any ordinary body either, nor was it one that seemed to be either dead or alive; where a corpse would decompose over time to the bones, this inanimate dragon's flesh and blood had instead hardened to grey stone over the time since it was put into this state; anyone who didn't know better would have thought it to just be a massive, disturbingly-lifelike and detailed statue, with the perfectly-carved stone features. But that wasn't the case any longer. The stony flesh started to form cracks like it was softening, its colour starting to deepen, as the life that had been suspended for an incredibly long time was now starting to resume and reawaken.

BWOOMMMMM!

The gigantic pair of nostrils on the dragon's long, flattish snout sprung back to life first, smoke curling out of them as a fire within the beast was reignited. The statue-like body's stony hide continued to regain its natural bloodred colour as it flexed and stirred; the stone began to soften and crack to reform reptilian flesh and scales. A heart started beating again for the first time in _eras_.

Low but loud rumbling sounds shuddered out as the creature's breathing functions began to resume and its nostrils began to work at getting air in and out of its lungs. The crest of spikes on the dragon's head flexed, and the muscles in its peaceful-seeming but beastly face began to stir slightly as the creature's long-dormant cognitive functions started reawakening from the long stasis they had been kept in.

Then the dragon had one second where a flitting image of a human face flashed across its half-awake mind, before its gigantic eye opened, its intricately-shaped slit-pupil staring out from the fiery yellow to the world. A low, reverberating growl like a tremor echoed off the cavern walls as Smaug was awakened to the world once more.


	2. Awoken

Piper was staring out to the evening sun far off just above the horizon from Terra Xoam’s jungle edge when she thought she saw something that made her mentally jump with surprise. For a moment she thought she saw an image flash over her vision, just for a split-second – an image of a bestial face with piercing yellow-ish eyes.

Piper got over her initial surprise after a moment, and then frowned as she thought and wondered if it had just been some trick of her mind; but she didn’t have more than a few seconds to think on it before a friendly voice to her side had her turning.

“Hey,” Aerrow said softly, from where he’d walked up to Piper’s side over from where the other guys were packing their stuff back onto the _Condor_ in the clearing.

“Hi,” Piper said back a little absentmindedly, her head slightly spinning for a moment.

“Are you okay?” Aerrow asked with concern, seeming to notice Piper’s slight surprised state.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Piper replied to her leader and best friend’s concerns, her thoughts going back to what she’d been thinking on before and what she’d been thinking about Aerrow. “Aerrow…” she began, “what was the Oracle like? Did you really see the future?”

“I saw something, but it wasn’t the future,” Aerrow said with a brooding side-glance of his own. Then he was positive again: “At least, not anymore.”

At that, Piper’s mind started to go back to her earlier thoughts on the Oracle and her traitorous idol Domiwick, but instead wound up going to the face she thought she’d just seen, as she tried to recall what she’d thought she glimpsed in any further detail from the split-second flash. Aerrow must have noticed the troubled look on Piper’s face because not five seconds later…

“I grabbed something for you on the way out.”

“Huh?” Piper turned at Aerrow’s voice, then a small smile lit up her face at the sight of the former Oracle Stone; now a naked spherical violet stone free of its casing, held out in Aerrow’s hand. Piper gently took it and looked admiringly at it in her hand.

“It’s beautiful,” she thanked Aerrow. “I wish I could rub it in Domiwick’s face!” she added softly with a grin at the thought.

“That guy was a slimeball,” Aerrow agreed with Piper’s thoughts.

“When I saw what he was really like, I felt so _stupid_ ,” Piper voiced herself to Aerrow. “But then I just felt sorry for him.”

Aerrow gave a light smile before he put a hand on Piper’s shoulder and led her away back towards where the _Condor_ was waiting.

“You realise you’re now Atmos’ premiere expert on the Forbidden City?” Aerrow pointed out cheerfully.

“Maybe I should write a book,” Piper mused jokingly, whatever had been momentarily worrying her now gone in the back of her mind.

* * *

I.J. Domiwick heaved and groaned as he pulled hard at one of the wall of rocks in front of him in the dark, trying to pry it loose. With a hard groan, he succeeded in starting a landslide – which brought the cave-in down, but got him a kicked-up cloud of dust and soot dirtying his expensive explorer’s suit and his perfectly-shaved face. Looking at the damage to himself as the dust settled, Domiwick groaned in despair; first he had lost the right to being the one to discover the Oracle Stone in the Forbidden City thanks to the Cyclonians’ treachery and the Storm Hawks’ meddling, and if that wasn’t enough, now his perfect celebrity-grooming was gone to it!

Still, at least he was now on his way to getting out of here, Domiwick noted as he looked up to the opening between the pile of rocks and the corridor ceiling, wide enough for a grown man to slip through. The explorer quickly began his climb up the rocks, and within a few seconds, he was squeezing his way out into the openness of the great sealed cavern in which the Forbidden City was built, stooping as he slid down on the other side of the rocks to cough as much dust from his lungs as he could.

Once he was done, Domiwick was just dusting his suit off as much as he could and about to make his way out of there, when he heard sounds that stopped him – rustling yet smooth, thumping yet gentle sounds, that sounded like they must’ve been coming from something alive, and _huge_ , in the space above and behind the Forbidden City Domiwick had just emerged from. Domiwick got a peripheral sense of something big and predatory coming right above and over him that froze him in place. And sure enough, just a second after the big shadow had fallen over him; Domiwick’s field of vision set in front of him saw a long, snakelike neck atop which rested a huge head, come slinking onwards from above him; followed by two bat-like forelimbs on either side that must have had sixty feet of space between them!

Domiwick mentally noted that the huge creature didn’t seem to have noticed him as it continued slinking on all fours onward from where it had crawled and climbed over the Forbidden City, towards where the Cyclonians had drilled a tunnel into the cavern; all the while with amazingly little sound. The creature’s huge, thick chest of dull-gold scales passing over Domiwick, eventually along with its two stocky hind legs with a very long tail draping behind it. But the massive creature, that Domiwick could now see to be a giant crimson-scaled _dragon_ , was just crawling its way fluidly along the cavern-sides towards the exit in search of a way out, when it suddenly froze in place with its large head on its neck facing at a 7-‘o-clock from Domiwick, as though it had suddenly sensed something in the air. Then, very slowly, the creature slowly twisted its head on its coiling serpentine neck as it turned a pair of blazing, glowing yellowish eyes that were like golden fire, and locked them onto the petrified human a distance behind it.

Domiwick wanted to open his mouth to scream but couldn’t; even as some primeval instinct awoke and screamed danger at the sight of the monstrous beast before him, especially as it locked and pinned him under that fiery, hypnotic gaze which suddenly made the skin of Domiwick’s mind feel like jelly. The huge red dragon narrowed those eyes with a frightening look in them, as it slowly turned its course around and slinked with that fluid motion back across the cavern to where the human explorer was.

“And what _is this then_ …?!” Domiwick mentally jumped in his body that stayed frozen as the dragon in the cavern ahead of him _spoke_! Its jaws had moved and sound had been produced; a deep, rich, growling voice that reverberated very powerfully off the cavern walls and inside Domiwick’s chest. The dragon scented the air with a loud, rushing sound of wind into its nostrils on its crocodilian head; though one could tell by the recognising and far-from-friendly look in its eyes that seemed like they were dissecting him like a bug, that it had no need to smell other than for confirmation.

“A _Man_!” the dragon snarled in that growling voice; its fire-like eyes blazing as their light seemed to flare with the dragon’s emotion, the spikes crowning its head flexing in turn. It had crossed the distance from the cavern-side to Domiwick in as few fluid paces as it had passed over him. “Now, who are you, and where are you from to come to be here?” the dragon questioned in that dark voice. “Are you some soldier or thief seeking alliance with others?! _SPEAK_!” It thundered out the last word violently enough that the cavern rock almost trembled.

“I-uh, I’m… Professor I.J. Domiwick, famous explorer known throughout all of Atmos,” Domiwick quickly answered nervously at the wrathful display. “I was here to be the first to explore the Forbidden City, untouched and inaccessible for _centuries_!” He couldn’t help but put in the last part boastfully.

“Oh?” the dragon murmured with interest in that powerful voice, raising a crimson-scaly brow as its expression and mood now shifted away from murderously foul. “This _Forbidden City_ , is not one of the places which I am familiar with. Do tell, is that where we are now?” Domiwick more-than-eagerly nodded his head, terrified under this dragon. The dragon hummed reverberatingly in thought to itself – _him_ self from the voice – at this, though his glowing eyes seemed almost troubled in a way that didn’t make things seem any brighter for the future of Domiwick’s health.

“I have never heard of this _Atmos_ either,” the dragon murmured almost to himself, before suddenly returning his piercing attention to Domiwick as though remembering that he was there. “What is it, _Professor_?”

Domiwick simply frowned in confusion at that question, puzzlement crossing his face. This dragon didn’t know that? “W-Well, your… _scalyness_ ,” Domiwick stuttered nervously, “it’s only all of the _known world_!” The dragon looked a little displeased at the tone in Domiwick’s voice, but it was instantly overridden by a new look that creased his scaly features as his long lips pulled into a frown at this; as though contemplating the new information.

The dragon hummed seemingly in thought for a moment before he spoke again. “And the known world’s borders, how far would you say that they extend for?” it asked Domiwick pressingly.

“Well, all of the skies of Atmos extend outward from here for thousands of miles, they only end at the Barrier Cliffs in all directions,” Domiwick nervously reported; he hardly even needed the subtle subliminal power of the dragon’s eyes and words that he just noticed invading his mind, encouraging him to spill the beans; to be cowed by the sheer terror the dragon inspired, into telling this intelligent beast what it wanted to know. Another troubled, dark frown creased the dragon’s facial features.

“Now that _is_ … surprising,” the dragon murmured again in that voice of his, rearing his crocodilian head back upward on his serpentine neck from where he had lowered it a little closer to the ground. His long tail whished through the cavern air behind him as he said: “And what do you know of _lake-towns and lonely mountains_? Or the hoards and treasure of dwarves?” There was something accusing and dangerous promised in the dragon’s narrowing eyes.

“Treasure… lakes and towns… mountains… _dwarves_?” Domiwick all but squawked through the mist that he hadn’t even realised had been descending over his mind at the dragon’s several questions and his answers. “W-well, everyone knows that bedtime-stories go that dwarves like treasure and having it with them. And… well, there are some terras in Atmos with lakes that have shoreside towns built on them, sir. If… that’s what you mean.”

It wasn’t what Smaug meant, but it mattered not, as this was all the confirmation he needed. And it meant that this human _Professor Domiwick_ of scholary indeed didn’t have anything to do with the Lakemen of Esgaroth or the filthy dwarves with Thorin Oakenshield.

“Well, this has been most informative, Professor,” Smaug purred out, with a look in his face like a cat ready to pounce as his fiery eyes were upon the human. “Thank you sharing this with me. Now if you’ll excuse my breach of manners, I am very much in need of _food_ …”

Faster than Domiwick could react, the dragon’s crocodilian jaws opened wide as it lunged its head straight for him like a snake; orange light shining bright at the back of its throat as it quickly came upon Domiwick’s form. Domiwick instinctively stumbling backwards in the fast-fleeting seconds with a cry, not even noticing the ledge his feet were finding…

CHOMP!

As Smaug’s jaws clamped through flesh and bone, the human’s now-three-limbed form went falling away, screaming, down the side of the rock-shaft the large city ruin was built on to the darkness below, his screams fading behind him with the trail of smoke left by his stump-wound as Domiwick was lost to sight.

Smaug was frustrated with himself, his lack of adequate performance; as he gulped down the whole human arm he’d bitten off and glared down over the edge to where the human had fallen away. Clearly, whatever accursed _enchantment_ he had been affected by hadn’t done anything in the way of wonders for his bodily functions. For a moment, Smaug considered going down after the human to finish up whatever was left of him, but then he disregarded it. If he wasn’t dead down there already then he would die soon enough; and besides, Smaug could sense much bigger game by the subtle signs of activity his keen senses detected reverberating through the rock of the cavern walls from somewhere beyond.

Making his way back across to where he saw there had evidently been a tunnel out of the cavern that had caved in, Smaug began digging and clawing his way through with his long claws, squeezing his serpentine body through as he burrowed his way outward. But all the time, Smaug’s thoughts never stopped going over what had happened at Lake-Town, and what he had learned. He remembered being struck down by the black arrow as he’d been enacting his revenge upon Lake-Town for the wretched vermin’s assistance toward the dwarves against him. And then after a blank, like a dreamless sleep without sense of self where one wasn’t even sure when they awoke if they had been asleep; he just woke up here, in a cavern deeper down into the subterranean depths than any other he’d encountered as he’d started making his way up through the tunnels from the depths; with no trace of injury from the black arrow upon his body. And with no obvious lead as of yet on how he had ended up here.

But Smaug did have an idea on what he was confident was somehow behind all of this – the _magic_ , that accursed one he had felt with the black arrow’s bite as it had pierced him, defiling his being! Yes, Smaug was certain that that was responsible for him being here, alive and breathing and fully recovered. And also that it was responsible for his new _affliction_ , he thought sourly, as he craned his head in the tunnel’s confined space to give a disgusted look out of his lantern-like glowing eyes to a place on his chest.

Where once there had been a gap in his natural armour where a single scale was missing, and where the black arrow had managed to pierce him; Smaug now bore what looked like a single odd crystalline scale, as though someone had forged a prosthetic dragon-scale of crystal just for him and perfectly placed it over the hole. Smaug took no joy nor relish in knowing that with the single lucky chink in his armour covered up, he was once more indestructible, invincible. For he looked on the crystal that had grown out over the area disgustedly; like it were some filthy, repulsive disease or a fungal infection in the skin, that could strike to cripple a man at any time. What made it worse was what Smaug, being a natural creature of magic, sensed on the crystal-piece covering his single scale-less area – magic, a resonance of it; very much the same as what he had felt and sensed invading him over Lake-Town, or he was a lizard! In fact, in the moment that he thought of that; the way the crystal-substance on his chest looked as though it had _grown out_ of his body from within, was probably the only reason that Smaug didn’t try to claw and tear the thing out of him there and then.

After a while, Smaug finally came to the end of the tunnel, blocked off by a cave-in of rocks. The wall of rocks on the outside glowed searing-hot orange for one second, before they were blasted away from the other side by the force of a molten fiery torrent from Smaug’s jaws. Cutting the stream of dragonfire from his jaws; slowly, the Dragon-Dread emerged from the subterranean tunnel out into the cool night air, in a reasonably-wide clearing beyond which lay the thick, lush vegetation of a jungle.

Smaug’s glowing eyes scanned around as he slinked about the area on the ground, piercing the peaceful night with their fiery light, looking for any sign of activity around him. The chirps and sounds of wildlife amongst the jungle had come upon the dragon’s senses about a second before it had all gone pleasantly silent at his arrival. Smaug smirked, pleased to see that all the animal life here knew well of and rightfully quailed at the predator that was passing amongst them. Smaug had also noted the lingering smells of humans in the air here, fresh and not from very long ago at all. The lack of clearly human scents currently carried on the wind to indicate any were nearby now, had to mean to Smaug that, whatever other humans had almost certainly accompanied Domiwick to here had long left and were so faraway now.

But as he moved and hunted, Smaug thought about the way that Domiwick had spoken to him; of Atmos being all of the known world, almost as though that were common knowledge, and furthermore of how the mortal had known nothing of the Lonely Mountain or Lake-Town or the filthy dwarves – save that he had spoken of dwarves as though they were a fairy-tale. As Smaug thought of the unnatural sleep he’d been suspended in without sense of self nor time, the answer seemed to slowly creep up on him like an assassin come into a king’s bedroom at night.

Smaug took to the air soon afterwards; running forward on all fours through the clearing, before shooting upward with a great pump of his winged forelimbs; being airborne over the jungle-landscape. But as Smaug flew eerily swift and silent over the jungle, a flitting shadow that was only there for a second; what the dragon saw of where he was in the air was enough to make his yellow eyes widen in shock. He saw he was on an island of jungle and land high above the cloudline, the land seeming to just end in several directions and give way to a sea of thick cloud, blue in the night. Smaug was astonished to say the least, something that he hadn’t expected to happen to him for a very long time; if this was indeed what he thought it was, a name like _Atmos_ would indeed be quite fitting for it.

Smaug made several dozen quick pickings from the jungle that he flew over to fill his stomach – which had felt famished since he had awoken in the cavern depths. He found and ate several frog-like creatures that had hung from trees, he rooted out and ate all at once several entire small flocks of tiny birds at a time, and he even managed to pick a few creatures resembling a cross between an orc and a rodent, each the size of human children, from the ground.

Once he’d eaten enough to satisfy him for now, Smaug turned in the air and flew away from the massive mountaintop of land poking through the clouds, out to the skies beyond. He couldn’t stay here, he had no intention of doing so; not when there was still the threat of more humans coming back besides Domiwick, and when Smaug hadn’t even secured a proper territory yet.

Within moments, as the jungle-coated peak within which he had awoken was further behind him, the great dragon’s large, dark, cruel form was blending in with the solitary darkness of night as Smaug flew out, sharp and fast, to the deep blue sea of clouds beyond, to the skies of Atmos.

* * *

About eleven hours later, Smaug’s dark, crimson-scaled form was flying swift and fluent amongst the thick sea of clouds stained bloodred-pink by the dawn that was approaching, though the dragon’s strong wings worked almost lazily as Smaug was almost-distracted more with his thoughts. Though he had taken several brief reprieves upon barren jagged dwarf-peaks jutting above the cloudline in the odd few places, Smaug could still begin to feel his joints aching from the exertion of so many hours’ worth of flying – though he were still nowhere near exhaustion, still able to fly for over _two days_ before his strength would seriously tire!

Smaug had flown throughout the night’s hours since leaving that jungle-peak he’d awoken at, twisting his flight path here and there for the sake of revealing possible results by randomness, and so far; he had already with certainty covered a few hundred miles’ worth and there was nothing further but sky and cloud all around him, and what was below the clouds. When Smaug had more than once dipped below the cloudline to see what was below, he had found a volcanic wasteland; with poisonous fumes filling the air to turn it dark, the cloudline seeming to block this barren waste off from the clean-aired skies above like a wall separating the wealthy from the poor. Volcanic peaks riddled the blackened land, to spit constant rivers of lava upon the barren landscape, crawling within which Smaug had spotted creatures like fanged slugs and considerable-sized scorpions. Smaug would have thought he were flying above the shadow of Mordor if he didn’t know better.

But more to the point, all this evidence Smaug saw all around him, the vastness and lack of knowledge of this place; could only support the wild-seeming thought that he’d been considering since emerging at that underground ruin. He was no longer in Middle-Earth, whether having spent a considerable amount of time entrapped by that enchantment or having been relocated to some other, far-flung corner of the world beyond the known lands.

The realisation and confirmation of this had brought many other burning thoughts and emotions to the great dragon. For one thing, Smaug had both burned with rage as hot as his fire and felt a vacant, howling emptiness like a longing black void inside of him; at the knowledge that this meant he couldn’t _repay_ the dwarves and Lakemen who had schemed and plotted and struck against him, and that his precious hoard of treasure in Erebor that he’d worshipped as his own for nearly two centuries, was long gone to him, beyond any dragon’s reach forever. After stewing on that for a short while, particularly on the bowman who had _shot_ him all but dead at Lake-Town, Smaug finally came to some decision.

So be it, he decided to himself. If he couldn’t reclaim the treasure that was his in Erebor and take his revenge upon his enemies who had dared to try and steal from him, then he would instead gather a new treasure hoard to himself here in this new realm, this _Atmos_. Smaug didn’t care if he had to tear open the world itself to get to the precious gems and gold he desired, he swore that he would keep going and would never stop until he had every last ounce of anything precious in Atmos resting underneath his belly. And if he encountered any single men, women or children here (he already of course, knew the race of Men to exist in this place) he would burn them all to ashes with all the land they had before him! He would make sure that all the living peoples of Atmos, and their children and their children’s children; wouldn’t readily forget the name of Smaug the Golden, the Dragon-Dread, the Tyrannical, the Death of All!

_Honkkk!_

Smaug turned his head at the sudden mechanical, unnatural sound amongst the skies, irked and surprised. To see what looked like a massive flying machine, unlike any invention of mortal hands that Smaug had ever seen or known to exist in Middle-Earth; come floating at a pace as mechanical as the vessel’s strange appearance, past the thick haze of clouds through the sky (which was turning purple above the clouds with the approaching dawn). It was ahead of where Smaug was, past a thick bank of clouds, so there was no way it could have seen him yet as far as the dragon understood.

Smaug’s brilliant mind quickly put together and guessed that he was looking on an advanced air-navigating vessel- _ship_ of some unnatural design. His first feeling was the mild spark of outrage it invoked in him to think that mortals had taken the skies that belonged to the dragons for themselves. But then as Smaug thought on what this contraption could have aboard in that case that any mortal vessel had aboard, stored away in chests and drawers; a dark, malicious grin was spreading across the dragon’s reptilian face.

Adjusting his flight just a little, Smaug floated downward as he approached the machine under the cover of the cloudline.

* * *

The trading carrier ship was droning on its slow course through the skies towards its destination in the early morning before the crack of dawn, when for a second a large shadow seemed to float or glide through the haze of the thick cloud-banks that surrounded the ship on either side, before disappearing just as fast. The crew onboard the flight deck were immediately roused by the glimpse, but as they checked their instruments and looked around amongst the clouds beyond, they saw nothing, no movement nor glimpse. They remained suspicious but went back to their tasks at hand.

It was just moments after that that a faint orange glow pierced through the clouding, about a second before a fiery torrent tore straight through and bathed the side of the ship’s hull in molten flames. Alarms immediately sounded throughout the ship as half the hull was bent and melted by the intense fire, just before the gigantic shape of a _dragon_ came bursting out from the cloud-banks, straight at the ship on two large wings. Its hind legs already splayed out as they tore clean upwards through the ship’s already-damaged side, triggering the muffled booms of engines and machines exploding within.

The dragon hovered frighteningly close above the damaged ship on its wings, roaring its bloodlust and fury down upon it, before it unleashed another torrent of flames from its jaws at one of the two propulsion-engines spitting blue energy at the ship’s rear; the propulsion was torn apart in an instant, and almost immediately the large vessel that was about the same size as the dragon began to dip lopsidedly in the air with only one propulsion engine holding it up. But Smaug was not done yet, no, he was just getting started! With a roar, pumping his wings harder; Smaug shot further upwards into the sky, his long, sharp tail whipping and tearing a further gauge into the undamaged side of the falling ship’s hull; as Smaug did a slow but ominous loop, and dive back downwards from the sky. Shooting down fast well over a hundred metres away from the damaged ship, Smaug snapped out his wings and his shape came swooping in straight for it fast. Within a second, Smaug had his hind-claws hooked straight into the ship at the front, the force with which he collided with the ship violently jerking it hard that way in the air.

Roaring his fury again, Smaug dug and twisted hard deep into the metal through layers of more metal and working beneath the hull; then with a sharp twist, he tore himself free, pulling many bits of metal and piping out in his claws with him. Another powerful boom sounded underneath the ship’s hull, and this time fire and smoke spat out of where Smaug had torn into it, the dragon observed with vicious pleasure.

By now the crew was in utter turmoil, yelling frantically, as red lights blared and smoke blasted everywhere on the deck, whilst the dragon outside the windshields flew away on its wings again, in a circle round across the clouds.

Smaug’s circle took him several leagues away from the ship that was already beginning to fall away downward to the clouds, before he twisted in the air and went shooting straight for the helpless vessel that lay like a sitting duck. He was upon it within ten seconds, and as he swooped without slowing down just above it, his hind-claws tore through the ship’s walls from front to back, reducing more of the metal to ribbons. Then from there, Smaug flew straight upwards to the sky, until when he was a small shadow well over 1000 feet higher up above the falling ship; he spread his wings wide to slow his ascent, then tucked them against his body and went shooting downwards towards his target. Spreading his wings slightly and splaying his hind-claws within the second before he came down upon it; Smaug smashed himself with all his draconic might, hard and brutal, into the ship, which was now little more than a burned, shredded smoking wreck falling towards its doom. Smaug’s position hooked upon the top of the ship that he was close to the same size as, brought the side of his head a short distance directly in front of the flight deck’s windshields, and Smaug grinned savagely in at seeing the humans inside scream and quail in fear and terror of his blazing yellow eye.

With a savage growl, Smaug reared the front of his body, spreading and pumping his wings without letting go of the ship; as he viciously pulled and dragged it through the air to where he wanted to take it, knowing exactly what he was going to do. Soon enough, Smaug spotted the single tiny, jagged barren peak just barely jutting out through the bottom of the cloudline that he were looking for – and with one mighty, powerful heave of strength and twist of his body in the air, Smaug threw the entire burning ship straight down upon the tiny peak, revelling as the sound of the ship smashing against the peak rang through the air around his ears, before it fell away to the wastelands below the clouds. Then, Smaug roared and angled his body downward, wings tucked against his sides. He hurtled through the thick barrier of the clouds, towards his waiting prize below; the thick haze surrounding Smaug’s body on all sides quickly transitioning from bloodred-crimson with the breaking dawn to ashen-black as he descended towards the wastelands.

In the volcanic waste below, dozens of surviving crewmembers were heaving and forcing and crawling their way out of the crashed, savaged wreck across the barren ground, when they spotted the dragon’s sharp, cruel silhouette pierce through the black clouds far away from where they were. Though Smaug were a great distance away, still the humans all pointed and screamed and frantically tried to push on faster against their injuries to get out of there; as the dragon’s shape spreading out its wings, came swooping towards them and had crossed the great distance in a total of six seconds, bathing the volcanic land in its molten flames to reduce dozens of fleeing humans to burning ash mid-run.

Smaug climbed higher in the wasteland’s dark air as he cut off the flow of his fire, circling round and coming upon the flaming wreck that remained of the ship; landing atop it like a lion atop its kill. And just like said predator, the first thing Smaug did next was roar loudly at the few remaining humans that fled away into the volcanic waste from him, to say that this was his; even sending jets of his flame after some of the ones that were still too close when they didn’t flee away from sight fast enough.

Once the mortals were gone, Smaug turned his attention to his prize beneath him; sifting and picking through the burnt, torn-apart shell in search of the rewards he had hoped to find and claim from this exercise of an attack. It wasn’t long into Smaug’s search that he sure enough found _gold_ , enough to fill four humans’ hands, within the ship; and Smaug purred elatedly to himself as he felt a burning need and satiation inside of him at the sight of the precious gold he had claimed as his. But Smaug also found something else – glowing blue stones, crystals unlike anything he had ever seen before, extracted from some compartment that Smaug gathered could well have been the great vessel-machine’s engine (or equivalent to such a thing). The dragon looked the glowing stones over curiously beneath his fiery gaze. Though he wasn’t necessarily quite as taken with gems and crystals as he was with gold most of all, Smaug’s desire for them was still quite far from ignorable. And he found himself looking on them more elated the more he looked them over, for such a _beautiful_ glow the blue stones had to them…

That decided it, as Smaug scooped up the new crystals with the gold he’d newly acquired, also making a mental note that he filed away into his brain to look for more knowledge on these strange crystals in Atmos and to see if there were more of them. As soon as Smaug had gathered everything up into his hind-paws where the treasures would be safe; he leaned forward and took to the air with a great pump of his wings, flying up from the wastelands away to the skies beyond.


	3. Awareness

“Ah, wait! Come back!” one of the two brothers called out desperately after the fleeing teenagers, from where the body that the twins shared from their vine-waists down had fallen. “Our all-star review opens on Terra Bogaton in a week!!” The rushed words were just out of the ginger-haired brother’s mouth a second before they noticed an unusual high-pitched whine coming from beneath them.

About a second later, a blast of steam from the geyser they’d fallen on sent the brothers’ monstrous shared body darting in circles round the steam column faster than its large stocky legs should have been able to carry it, long green tendrils all curled to the gargantuan creature’s rear end. The brothers had just enough time on finally ending their comical run, to see the adolescents drive away into the Wastelands on their rides; taking the producer brothers’ star with them. The two let out a roar of defeat and hugged their humanoid upper-bodies together in their grief. The comforting embrace lasted for all of two seconds before the ginger-haired brother glared and pointed a finger.

“This is all _your_ fault!”

“What? My fault?!” The dark-haired brother exclaimed in outrage.

“You heard me!”

“No, it was _your_ idea to come to Terra Neon!” the dark-haired one snapped back.

“Well we couldn’t go to Toledos with that _dragon_ flying about!” the orange-haired retorted.

“Dragon?! You mean that fancy tabloid hack!” The dark-haired exclaimed.

“Oh, so a tabloid hack burned a whole terra did it?!” All while the brothers were busy squabbling, they didn’t notice anything slithering in amongst the Wasteland’s crags around them.

“Ay, ya know we don’t have any stars yet,” the orange-haired groaned aloud miserably, slapping a hand over his eyes. “It can’t get any worse…” It was just then that his brother went wide-eyed at something and lightly elbowed the orange-haired to open his eyes. Lava eels were slithering in across the barren black land towards them, jaws snapping and roaring hungrily as they closed in on the gargantuan-bodied brothers from all sides.

“For you I’ve got news…” the dark-haired brother murmured grimly to his twin.

* * *

Word had quickly spread amongst the skies over the last ten days since the visit to the Forbidden City. In those first few days, it had been carrier ships disappearing in the skies; some being found taken down and torn apart in the Wastelands, with few survivors found, who were horribly burned and screaming of the alleged dragon they’d seen. But it had been just a spreading rumour, until the so-called dragon had attacked a terra in the area, scorching dozens alive and burning much of the mountaintop’s landscape to such a severe extent that most of it was left a scorched-bare rock.

Word of the dragon that had suddenly appeared in Atmos spread rather quickly after that, as more ships continued to disappear in the same quadrant, and eventually even another terra further out was attacked. The supposed menace of this dragon was soon the headline of most Atmos news; especially as all attempts to capture, hunt or destroy the destructive beast failed dramatically, and ship after ship saw the great bloodred-scaled monster flying in the skies; a second before it incinerated them with its destructive fiery breath and tore away at its victims with its teeth and claws. Many were asking and gossiping about where this creature had sprung up from after dragons had been believed long extinct for centuries, and what its appearance meant. There were all sorts of theories and gossip being passed between people at sky pit-stops and terra communities, as news of another dragon sighting or another ship taken down in fire and destruction went over the news.

And that was what the dragon that was becoming increasingly well-known across the Atmos was doing right now; laying waste to another terra that had caught his sights. Smaug cast his great shadow across the scream-filled town upon the terra, its pathetic inhabitants quailing in fear; as he flew fast above the houses and halls, and unleashed a great torrent of fire forth from his jaws to bathe the town below in ruin.

Yet another chorus of agonised screams rose up to Smaug in the air, as a handful of dozens were instantly incinerated along with a great stretch of their town, quite to the dragon’s pleasure. A few archers quickly started firing from their rooftop vantage points at the powerful beast flying overhead, but their crystal projectiles merely bounced away or exploded harmlessly against the dragon’s impenetrable hide, without any damage done. Smaug laughed a deep, growling laugh of mockery that the mortals were thinking to pierce him with such weapons, the sound cutting through the night air. A second afterwards, Smaug unleashed yet another destructive stream of fire from his jaws, which washed and burned across the town’s rooftops as his draconic shape swooped overhead, burning the archers away to ashes before they could even attempt to flee with their worthless lives.

Within a total of sixty more seconds, the town was little more than a ruin; with rubble littering the streets from where Smaug’s claws and his explosive fire-breath had reduced buildings and towers to pieces raining down on the streets. Whilst those of the mortals that were still alive; just like any vermin did, scuttled and scampered frantically over the dead and cried out pathetically. But screaming would do no more to save them than it did all the many others that had screamed in Smaug’s presence throughout his life before he’d ended them; and if they thought he was anywhere near finished with them yet, then they were mistaken!

Climbing slightly higher in the air that was growing thicker with smoke, Smaug circled round the very edges of the town; his large, cruel silhouette hanging as a deathly shadow above the flames that engulfed half the town. And once he had completed his circle, Smaug made a beeline low over the town, burning many more streets and screaming people away in his fire-breath beneath him, as he made straight for the fifty-foot statue at the centre. He splayed out his hind-claws to catch the giant stone just in time, jarring it loose with minimal resistance from it, and sent it shooting hard along the ground ahead of him to raze much more of the town away to ruin and death.

Smaug grinned maliciously at all the death and suffering he wrought as he observed the trail of further loss of life left in the town statue’s path. The dragon was already climbing higher in the air again, and proceeded to run another line of fiery destruction from one edge of the town all the way through to the other. The screams of the people dying below in Smaug’s fire and ruin were becoming considerably lesser now, and his keen draconic eyesight clearly made out how the number of the bodies was rising and the number of the wailing living was falling.

It was only a few more blasts of dragonfire upon the streets and a few more buildings torn down under his claws before Smaug finally moved to retrieve the spoils he had come here for. There were still a good few wails of suffering rising into the air from the half-burned, half-destroyed town, but that was just the way Smaug wanted it – he wanted the few who had survived his wrath here tonight to spread word of the great death and destruction he had wrought upon them to the rest of Atmos, to make all the miserable mortals quail in fear of the threat of the dragon that would soon with time be coming for them all!

Smaug came in for a landing at the half-ruined town square, touching down smoothly as a plane on all fours, as his massive form filled the entire spacious yard. His fiery yellow eyes glowed piercingly out on his head as he fixed his gaze upon a certain, moderately-high hall-building in particular, and he went to work tearing the foundation’s roof and walls away to get to what was within.

Within seconds, Smaug soon found it – the vaults and bags’ worth of shining silver and gold hidden away in the bank’s walls, his eyes lighting up with a greedy feeling of elation at the sight of the precious coins he beheld before him. After taking a couple seconds to admire the sight of them, Smaug scooped the gold up in his hind-claw; the room-filling amount fitting snugly within the dragon’s massive paw. Then he climbed to the top of the ruin, all bat-like on his forelimbs; he leaned forward over the top of the roof, with his wings spread, and with a great pump of them, took to the air. But as Smaug’s terrible shape flew over the burning town and away towards the night sky, the dragon was sure to let loose one last stream of molten fire upon the already-devastated town below; leaving a whole half-mile’s worth of further burning ruin in his passing.

Smaug flew far for miles towards his destination; he was little more than a fluid shadow in the great expanse of the skies, though his body was barely tired when he finally came upon it from his latest plunder. Deep into an uninhabited and relatively-ignored region of Atmos, where no inhabited terras poked above the clouds and no human ships passed through for miles and miles; Smaug’s shape swooped through the remote valley of barren crags pointing to the sky, heading towards one in particular near the centre of the outcropping. The great fire-drake’s flight-speed slowed as he upon the cave opening in the jagged central crag; landing smoothly upon the ledge, before he immediately crawled in through the cave mouth, coming out into the current lair he had claimed for himself with his fresh spoils in hand.

Smaug’s fiery gaze looked about the vast cavern within the crag that he had established as his lair, looking to see if a single piece from the coins and crystals littering the cave floor was missing. The cavern was vast enough for Smaug’s massive size to fit within as he crawled inside, though it was still nowhere near the glorious vastness of the Lonely Mountain’s halls. Smaug’s head could just brush the cavern ceiling if he stood to his full height and stretched his neck high, and the distance from one cavern wall to the other was barely more than twice Smaug’s own full length (though that was still a very great distance). The treasure that Smaug was gathering to himself here in this lair was little more than a very light littering of gold and crystals about the cave floor, their light casting faint but shining glows of gold and multicoloured-gems across the cave. Though that would all soon change, Smaug thought darkly. After all, just a week ago this cave had barely had more than enough coins and crystals to spread across _half_ its floor. And Smaug had every intention of gathering a treasure hoard greater than even his old one in Erebor, under him again before he was finished.

Letting the new metal coins he had taken for his hoard gently slide from between the claws of his hind-paws to join the rest of his beautiful collection on the cave floor, Smaug lay his massive body down and curled it around a large portion of the thin floor of coins almost protectively, letting the shining treasure all around him bring him the great sense of satisfaction to rest as he lay himself down to sleep. It was true that just as dragons could sleep for anything between days and _decades_ when they had a satisfying bed of treasure all to themselves, they could go for _weeks_ without sleep before they became in health-threatening need of rest; but Smaug still took rest when he could get it, he was not so foolish a wyrm as to go dulling his strength and senses by spending too much time awake.

But as Smaug closed his large eyes and withdrew his mind to deep slumber, the huge dragon’s low rumbling noises reverberating powerfully off his lair’s cave walls; Smaug’s thoughts went back to the magic that had tainted him after his fall at Lake-Town, bringing back a lick of disgust as Smaug remembered the taint he now bore with it. Smaug had examined it with his draconic brain’s great mental faculties, _feeling_ that there was something different inside of him, which he had no doubt the magic that had infected him was responsible for. Smaug had been unsuccessful so far in finding any knowledge on this accursed magic, nor what threat it could pose to him that he could only speculate on; in his plunder of the Atmos for treasure. But one thing the dragon knew for certain was that if he scanned and searched on it hard enough, he could just sense something radiating from some unknown source. Something _powerful_ … And that interested the dragon more than almost anything else.

* * *

Three weeks after the Forbidden City, the _Condor_ stabilised in the green-tinted air of the Great Expanse as it finished its ride out of the maelstrom in one piece; just barely. But onboard, whilst Aerrow breathed a sigh of relief at their survival, Stork was just staring dead ahead from his station at the helm, as though he’d just lost something important.

“My cabbage…” the Merp helmsman murmured airily after the cargo they’d had to dump into the storm to escape. Then he immediately rounded on Junko, looking angry. “You dumped the whole load!”

“Yeah… well, sometimes, you know, the tough choices have to be… um… you know… chosen,” the wallop Storm Hawk stuttered as he tried to excuse himself. Stork didn’t look the least bit impressed as he just lowered his face and put two fingers to his temple with a bitter sigh.

“Uh, guys?” Finn called to get everyone’s attention. “Our friend is back…!”

Sure enough, at that moment the dreaded eerie figure of the Sky Siren – the one who had lured them all into the Expanse like a trap, and who had just now tried to trick them into flying right to their doom – reappeared hovering off the floor before the squadron, strands and tendrils of unearthly violet-glowing energy twisting and emanating around her green-skinned female form.

“Is it just me or does she looked _majorly_ peeved this time…?” Piper pointed fearfully as the Siren bore her perfect-looking fanged white teeth in a frightening snarl, her milky-white eyes narrowed under her twisting hair.

“We escaped her little trap, so now it’s personal,” Aerrow reasoned, scowling at the Siren. Who was now raising her clawed hands, the glowing purple energy gathering and building around them. “Everyone, stay at your posts!” Aerrow called out, knowing what the Siren was about to do.

“Her only power is illusion,” Piper spoke up to get everyone’s attention, her face fixed in defiant determination. “ _Resist_ , no matter what she throws at you!” The Storm Hawks only had a second to register the Sky Siren’s savage grin at them before, in one great swoop, she sent a blast of power from her hands hurtling straight at their minds…

_Piper looked around for a second, then felt an awed gasp escape her chest at the beautiful orange-gold crystal she saw hovering in front of her…_

_“A Helix Stone…” she murmured, her hands drifting towards the crystal without conscious accord. “The most powerful crystal_ imaginable _!” And it was right here for her, practically calling for her, the deepest desire she could have…_

_Deepest desire…_

No!

_“No, I don’t want it!” Piper told herself, turning away from the Helix Crystal as she desperately tried to force herself to focus on what was really happening. “I don’t want it!”_

_“Ah, but_ I _do,” a familiar but far from welcome voice suddenly caught Piper’s attention. And she turned to see a familiar girl about her age holding the floating Helix Stone above the palm of her hand, one who that crystal belonged in the hands of less than anyone else. Master Cyclonis, her personal nemesis._

_“NO!” Piper screeched out desperately, ready to move forward rather than see Cyclonis use something this powerful for evil…!_

The Sky Siren smirked triumphantly from where she floated in the air as she watched her victims fall prey to the illusions of their own desires, just as so many more before them had and had fallen to their doom. They were all putting up more of a fight than they had before now that they knew, but if they wouldn’t embrace their desires’ lures willingly then they would just be pushed to it by their fears.

The girl in particular desperately fought the urge to take her deepest desire and banish her worst fear. The Sky Siren frowned a little at all their persistence, but it only prompted the wicked creature to push them that little harder… So when each of them tried to push their desires away, the Sky Siren either forced them to their desires or brought out their fears to mentally push them towards it, going deeper in her anger the further they still resisted. The particular girl, the Sky Siren found; had a fear relating to this other girl, this Cyclonis, and what she could do if the wrong things fell into her hands. One that ran rather deep, the Sky Siren found as she went deeper…

Until she came across something that had nothing to do with the girl’s fears or desires and was latched into her core…

Something… _connecting_?

* * *

Suddenly, Piper had a split second to feel a jolt of strange power of some kind run through her like a powerful shock, surging and reaching through the connection within her, running to the other end like along a power line. Then, as that power’s transmission reached its end, the dragon Smaug's yellow eyes bulged in his head and he recoiled mid-flight in the shock of what he felt.

Smaug had cried out as he’d felt the strange jolt of energy surge into him from some inlet within, filling him up, and took a moment to regain control of himself on the air; hovering on his wings. Whatever it was, in that moment, he had felt like he were close to what humans would probably call a god, like he were _invincible_! And then, it had stopped and gone again, as though it were just a spark of the actual thing.

Smaug shook his head on his long, muscular neck, astonished at the connection and what he’d just felt with it triggered within his being. He’d known there was something different in him before; as though whatever magic had tainted him had twisted and reformed something inside his being, or perhaps had added something extra inside of him (like a parasite laying an egg in its host!), but it wasn’t until now that he’d been fully aware of it. The connection had seemed to just come out of nowhere, Smaug mentally noted, his mind immediately going fast through the calculations and possibilities of what it was and what it could mean.

What he had just felt was linked to the magic that was now inside of him, Smaug was sure of it. But at the power jolt he had felt it bring, Smaug had not felt paranoia of an infectious threat inside him as would usually be his first reaction. He _wanted_ it, he wanted the source of that power that would make him stronger!

It was enough to set Smaug’s mind, as he narrowed his fiery gaze as though he could burn through the sky with it to see what he sought. Now his top priorities were no longer just collecting a new treasure hoard for himself and enacting his revenge on mortals in Atmos. He now had his mind set on a greater treasure than any gold, on a power that could make him even stronger than the great dragon already was… or pose a threat to him from within like a parasite. But Smaug was confident that it would be the former, and he would find it no matter how long he had to scour the skies or the Wastelands below.

* * *

Piper fell down to the flight deck’s floor with a disoriented groan, a haze across her mind like she were just waking up out of a dream. Or rather, like she had been forcefully woken from one by an electric shock.

“Yes! I’ve got the Time Pulse beacon back!” Piper heard Finn call out from where he was at the _Condor_ ’s instruments, as she shook off the hazy feeling of the illusion – and the new, immaterial thing she had clearly felt inside of and extending out from her that she hadn’t been aware of before…

“Keep resisting!” Piper called out to her squad-mates from where she’d fallen to the floor. “I think we’re overloading her powers!” No-one even noticed the way the Sky-Siren, its glowing aura drained from exertion where it floated; seemed to glare for that moment at her in particular, almost as though disturbed by something it had seen.


	4. Contact

It had been a few days since the Storm Hawks had escaped the Great Expanse, from which no ship had ever returned before. Finn and Stork had both had the _Condor_ to themselves for the day while Aerrow, Piper and Radarr were taking Junko to see a dentist about his chaotic toothache; but whilst Finn had been itching to take down some Cyclonian cruisers, Stork had only been interested in his book.

That was when a message had come from Terra Vapos (on a white falcon that had just vanished to dust moments later), calling for their heroic Domo’s help. Finn remembered the time when the Storm Hawks had stumbled on the legendary long-lost terra by accident, and Finn had become its Domo and saved it from Verrocs; right before Stork popped his bubble of the good times’ memories. Stork had been reluctant to go and become their Domo’s song-writing minstrel, but Finn had pushed him into it between that or dealing with more Cyclonians by himself.

When they arrived on Terra Vapos, Finn and Stork had been quite disturbed as the ruler King Agar had physically shown them that the people were all _literally_ fading away, and needed their home’s energies replenished. And when Agar told them that for that they needed Serpergris – found only in the stomachs of _dragons_ – Finn, and Stork especially, had momentarily grown immediately fearful at the thought of trying to find the only dragon known to be living in Atmos, which they’d heard of over the last few weeks. Thankfully, their fears had been alleviated when Agar had shown them a map to the last known Serpergris deposit. And wouldn’t one know it, it was just as Stork had tried to wish Finn good luck on his quest and slip back to the ship, that the people of Vapos had named him the Domo’s minstrel who would have to go with him on the quest to write of his accomplishment.

Which brought Finn and Stork to where they were now; the Great Domo as Terra Vapos had hailed him, leading the way into a dark, foreboding-looking cave whilst Stork was improvising a less-than-optimistic song at the back.

Stork immediately began to shudder in paranoia at the sight of the massive broken bones, that the light from Finn’s torch revealed littering the bare cave floor, like the leftovers of some ferocious beast’s meals over ages.

“Ohhh… And this does _not_ look… _safe_ ,” Stork piped up in a voice high with his nerves.

“Relax dude,” Finn spoke as he trudged on without noticing what he was walking towards; “there’s only one dragon alive in Atmos right now, and it’s a hundred miles away from-”

Finn was cut off with a cry as Stork suddenly pulled him back behind a rock, letting the torch fall away out of sight. A quick peak over the rock ledge they were hidden behind, and Finn immediately knew why, spying several figures in the opening below them – several amphibious figures dressed in pirate gear, gathered round an open chest.

“Here it is, boys,” a deep, accented voice growled out as the familiar figure of Captain Scabulous pulled something out for all his men to see.

“ _I’d prefer… the dragons_!” Stork hissed in a whisper next to Finn, the green-skinned Merp’s large eyes wide with fear.

“Here’s the plunder we’ve been looking for!” Captain Scabulous announced again, earning another round of cheers from his men as he held the glowing object up high victoriously.

“ _Murk Raiders_ ,” Stork groaned miserably in recognition of the sky pirates.

“And they have the Serpergris,” Finn whispered gravely at the sight below them, his eyes never leaving the glowing vial held in Scabulous’ hand.

* * *

Finn and Stork weren’t able to do anything to intervene as the Murk Raiders left the cave with the Serpergris in hand, and they could only follow _The Blood Crow_ that was Scabulous’ ship in the _Condor_ , as it had flown back towards Terra Deep. Stork was less than pleased when Finn remained set on getting the Serpergris back for the people of Vapos, and even less so when they wound up walking onto _The Blood Crow_ disguised as pirates from another ship, to swab the decks.

Thankfully, after handwashing many eyepatches and scrubbing many floors and pipes, the disguised Storm Hawks’ chance to grab the Serpergris was finally on them when they were serving at a celebratory feast amongst the crew; at which they saw the Serpergris hanging in a vial around Captain Scabulous’ neck. Though Stork grimly declared that Finn would die trying to swipe the Serpergris, especially when Finn only just got his reaching hand out of that crew photo at the last millisecond.

But unbeknownst to anyone on _The Blood Crow_ , they weren’t the only ones whom wind of the last known Serpergris in Atmos had reached, and they weren’t the only ones seeking such a precious treasure to claim for themselves right now…

“Time to go to Plan B,” Finn hissed to Stork in a moment that they got to the side from the dinner; immediately taking up the domed platter-dish Stork had in his hands, and quickly putting on a straight-backed waiter-posture that went absurdly with Finn’s grizzled pirate clothing.

“Do we even _have_ a Plan B?” Stork hissed back, as Finn immediately strode over all waiter-like, to where Scabulous was completely occupied munching on a thick stick of meat. Finn waited, the Storm Hawk’s blue eyes never leaving Scabulous, placing a loaf of meat out on an oblivious Murk Raider’s head and another on the table. His opportunity finally came as Scabulous started jugging down a mug of water, Finn quickly reaching to the vial around his neck with the tongs…

_Ting._

Scabulous stopped drinking. A second later, a powerful three-fingered hand was wrapped around Finn’s hand that held the tongs, pulling him hard towards the furious captain’s snarling, scarred face.

“ _And just what do ya think YOU’RE doing_?!” the Captain growled furiously into Finn’s face, the latter only able to whimper fearfully for his life without a good answer as the Captain and every Raider at the table glared right at him. Then, one frantic look around the room by Stork later; and classical music was playing from the recorder and filling the dining room. Finn immediately caught on and laughed nervously as he turned back to the Captain.

“Asking you for a dance?” Finn proposed. There was a long moment where all the Raiders continued to glare at Finn, whilst Scabulous turned the non-scarred side of his face to peer at and examine the sweating boy out of his one eye thoughtfully.

“Don’t mind if I do! Hah-hah!”

A moment later, Stork could only stare dumbfounded with his shoulders drooping, as the frightening pirate captain took Finn gracefully waltzing around the room, the other Murk Raiders all following example with each-other jovially.

“You’re very light on yer feet!” Scabulous cheered to his dancing partner, laughing loudly.

“ _Help_ ,” Finn just managed to whine over his shoulder desperately, to where Stork had just found himself waltzing with Eyeball.

“I would have preferred the trip to Wallops,” Stork murmured flatly.

Finn and Stork were thankful when Scabulous and Eyeball finally exchanged partners on the dining hall-turned-dance floor, and quickly went waltzing away together. And it couldn’t have been soon enough either, because it was just three seconds later that Eyeball opened his single eye and pointed out the leg of meat replacing the Serpergris on the Captain’s neck. The music immediately died down as Scabulous held up and glared at the meat.

“THIEVES!” he screamed after the two newbies who had just slipped away. “AFTER THEM!” The Captain’s voice rung out throughout the ship, followed by the yelling of every angry crewmember onboard.

The _Condor_ was just lifting off from where it had been parked nearby yet out of sight in the green murk of Terra Deep, when something happened that no-one had been expecting. A rumbling sound carried on the wind towards them, its echo building until it was clear it was the building roar of something powerful and bestial, coming straight in. From where they’d just been taking off the _Condor_ to make their getaway, Finn and Stork still in their pirate-disguises, could only stare in spine-chilled terror at the sound out into the murk; a split-second before a fast-moving yet great shadow passed by in front of their ship.

The crew of _The Blood Crow_ had noticed it too, as their ship had just been getting up as well. And they had just a second to react to it before the huge form of a dragon; cruel and terrible and about the same size as a carrier ship; swooped towards their ship with impressive speed.

The dragon twisted round the bigger Murk Raider ship in the murk-fogged air – and unleashed a streaming bellyful of orange fire across _The Blood Crow_ ’s grubby red hull as it flew by, the flames bathing and rolling over the metal. As Finn and Stork could only stare in jaw-dropping horrified awe from where they were desperately trying to pull their ship away fast, explosions boomed and blasted and tore across the burned area of the ship’s hull, with the flames eating through it like the protective metal were nothing. At the same moment, the dragon was flying away from _The Blood Crow_ straight towards them, faster than their ship could get away. Its front reared, hind-claws splayed; the dragon smashed the _Condor_ to send it violently careening straight in a specific direction towards one of the looming spiky formations in the murk.

Stork and Finn both screamed from at the helm, as the _Condor_ was jarred hard into the spikes; one particularly thin yet long one impaling the nearest of the ship’s two main engine-arms as it was stuck in place. Stork desperately twisted the helm hard as though with all his strength, but the ship wouldn’t budge and could only groan in protest – it was stuck firmly in place.

Meanwhile, it seemed that the dragon wasn’t yet done with _The Blood Crow_ , as it flew back towards the pirate ship, unleashing a torrent of roaring flames that ate and burned further into it and caused further damage. By now, the dragon’s fire had eaten all the way through the hull so that the halls and layout underneath, filled with Murk Raiders frantically running about, were clearly visible.

As if on cue, half a dozen crystal cannons immediately began firing huge bolts of violet energy upon the attacking menace, but the energy-bolts merely deflected and exploded harmlessly upon the dragon’s undamaged hide, as it circled around the pirate ship. At their strikes, the dragon opened its jaws and laughed; a deep, terrible growling sound of a laugh that rolled over the spiky landscape and the two ships within it.

Finn and Stork could only stare from out on the bridge in pale-faced horror at hearing the dragon _laugh_ , a very intelligent sound that spoke of the beast’s immense power and deadliness all at once.

 _The Blood Crow_ ’s cannons continued firing on the beast desperately, but the dragon’s hide continued deflecting the blasts without a scratch to a scale. The dragon swooped by the gun deck; the gunmen at the cannons barely having a second to even try to run, before the dragon’s fire burned them, and their whole section of the ship, away to nothing.

Finn was staring practically bug-eyed with terror at the fate that could well be his and Stork’s at any moment now. “Stork, we’ve gotta _get out of here_!”

“Nnngh… _I’m trying_!” Stork strained at the helm as he continued to desperately twist it with all his strength, trying to pull them free of the spike that had them stuck fast. But it wasn’t budging. For a moment, Stork’s face looked utterly defeated, but then it quickly lit up again as a bright idea came to him. Pulling a lever, one second later; there was the sound of liquid gushing within the ship’s impaled engine-arm, and black oily fluid came quickly oozing out through the puncture point around the spike. With one last great heave of the helm from Stork, the ship suddenly began lifting as the slippery fluid helped it slide on the spike; and within moments, the ship was free. The dragon sharply whirled its fiery gaze from where it had latched itself onto _The Blood Crow_ ’s hull, just in time to see the _Condor_ turn and blast away fast in the green air.

Enraged, the dragon gave a roar after the ship. Then, spreading and pumping its wings furiously, the dragon tore away from _The Blood Crow_ ; taking a very important chunk of the ship’s internal workings out in its hind-claws. The pirate ship spun as it went falling down with the loss of its engines. Captain Scabulous and the Murk Raider crew onboard only had three seconds to scream in their descent, before their ship crashed hard and fast to the jagged, spiky landscape surface below it. The dragon was already flying away after the smaller ship that was getting away, pumping its wings hard.

The _Condor_ sped hard and fast through the thick, obscuring air, the green murk rushing by fast all around it as it sped quickly free of Terra Deep’s treacherous spike-crags. Finn breathed a sigh of relief on the bridge, whilst Stork never took his positively-bulging eyes away from the view ahead of them.

“I think we lost it.”

CRASH!

The whole _Condor_ shook violently a second after the words were out of Finn’s mouth. Behind the speeding ship, the dragon’s huge form loomed through the murk as it gave pursuit, the beast’s savage yellow eyes piercing. It unleashed another torrent of fire at the ship, which just grazed past the rear side, nearly sending it violently off-course if not nearly destroying the propulsion engines. Stork just barely stabilised the ship and kept it flying, whilst the dragon’s silhouette far behind through the now-fading murk didn’t get any further away behind them.

“This is _bad_!” Stork positively squeaked out, his eyes never losing any of their readiness to pop right out of his skull. Even Finn was now looking distressed and frightened as the terrifying creature kept up with the ship that was at full-speed, and continued to bash and hit at it.

“We need help,” Finn agreed gravely.

* * *

Junko continued to screech and struggle on the dentist’s operating chair, kicking his legs frantically; as the frightening fellow wallop was literally on top of him pulling violently at his mouth, going on about not taking care of his teeth, and next tooth pulled out is the charm. Aerrow and Piper were both cringing behind the glass pane at the sight, and Radarr’s face was going green again as the ferret-like Storm Hawk held his mouth shut with two paws.

Aerrow and Piper were almost relieved when the wallop desk-nurse who looked no less frightening than the bigger dentist, poked her head in through the door, radio microphone in hand.

“Call for you two,” she said in her accented voice that sounded like a demented asylum doctor’s.

Aerrow took the microphone and held it up to his face. “Hello? Who’s there?”

Frantic-sounding, unintelligible shouting immediately came fighting through the hissing static over the radio, which sat just through the doorway on the nurse’s desk from there. Though the voice was undoubtedly Finn’s.

“Whoa, whoa,” Aerrow quickly tried to placate, as Piper and Radarr both came over to see what was going on. “What’s happening? You’re… being hogged by a maggot…?”

“ _Being chased by a dragon_!” the marksman Storm Hawk yelled out frantically clear through the radio speaker.

“WHAT?!!” Aerrow and Piper both yelled loudly, as Radarr screeched, in shock.

A couple seconds later, the waiting room behind the glass pane was deserted as the Storm Hawks all went running out, leaving a very traumatised-looking member of their number to shake uncontrollably at the operating chair.

“Guysh? You shtill there?” Junko called out almost desperately for his friends with his mouth forced violently wide open again.

“Now, this should do thee trick,” the dentist’s accented voice spoke up; a second before Junko was screaming again as the drill came fast towards his mouth.

* * *

The _Condor_ flew as hard and fast as it could go through the blurring cloud-banks, now long clear of Terra Deep. But the red dragon of equal size didn’t seem to be giving up as it flew equally fast behind the ship, regularly shooting streams of molten fire at it which the _Condor_ just barely twisted to avoid each time.

Finn desperately worked to force the pipes that were hissing steam back together as they strained with the ship, red lights and alarms blaring throughout the bridge.

“Stork, the _Condor_ can’t take much more of this!” Finn shouted over the havoc to the Merp helmsman, who held the helm in a very white-knuckled grip.

“I can shake that dragon off quick, there’s an old crag system coming up ahead that’ll take us straight through to Vapos!” Stork called back, his voice high with the severity of the situation as his eyes never once left the view in front of him.

“We can’t do that,” Finn moaned back, though there was an uncharacteristic sense of duty in his otherwise-straining voice as he rationalised: “We can’t risk leading that thing back to Vapos!” Almost as though on que, Stork just barely managed to twist the ship harshly in time, as another torrent of flames skimmed over the right-hand engine-arm in front – close enough for the fire to burn the metal surface black.

“We can go around in twists and bends until we lose the thing, _then_ head straight for Vapos!” Stork cried back, impressing Finn at how fast he’d rationalised frantically. Another distant roar signalling the dragon unleashing its fire again, at which the whole ship shook _way_ too violently for comfort, was all Finn needed to decide there and then.

“Okay, do it!”

The _Condor_ instantly went blasting almost frantically down, straight towards the barren, rocky land that loomed below through the clouds – a bare, uninhabited land of valleys of spiky, rocky, harsh terrain, just a little above the Wastelands – with the dragon remaining hot on the ship’s trail.

Within seconds, the _Condor_ was whooshing, bending and swerving through the vast network of jagged-lipped valleys that were more than wide enough to accommodate the carrier ship, as Stork struggled to shake the pursuing beast off of their trail. But the dragon wasn’t giving up in the least; swooping, climbing and twisting to avoid every protruding rock and jagged spike that would hinder it, at every turn.

Smaug’s fiery yellow eyes, blazing madly, remained firmly fixed upon his fleeing prey flying ahead. Smaug had heard rumour of the Serpergris – a mineral unfamiliar to him which was said to be produced in the stomachs of the (so-called) dragons that had once lived in Atmos millennia ago before going extinct. And naturally, of course, when the great dragon had heard that it may well have been the last ever deposit, he was invariably drawn. But when Smaug had arrived at the cave where this Serpergris was supposed to be, he had found nothing there; save the fresh scents in the cave to indicate that _thieving mortals_ had arrived before him and taken the Serpergris. That was when Smaug had spied the two ships flying away; and, instantly arriving at the obvious conclusion, he had gone after them.

The dragon and the _Condor_ must have played that deadly, risky game of cat and mouse through the rocky terrain for a good several minutes; several minutes of the ship being swerved and jerked harshly with the helmsman’s intense, frantic efforts to evade and try to throw off the beast; before Stork finally spoke up.

“It’s no use, the dragon’s not giving up!” he exclaimed, his voice high enough to be almost a squeak by the last word.

“Well, we’d better think of something!” Finn said back desperately, the vial containing the Serpergris in hand. “If we don’t get this thing back to Vapos soon, the people there are all gonna be _goners_!”

Finn was shocked for a moment as Stork for the first time just looked out of the corner of his wide eye back at him from where the Merp was piloting the helm. “Then take your Skimmer, get the Serpergris to Vapos, and I’ll keep the dragon chasing after me until I can ditch it, and meet you back on the terra!” The words were out of Stork’s mouth so fast Finn just barely managed to comprehend them all, thanks to the situation’s gravity.

“Stork, you’re a _genius_!” Finn praised his friend with a grin, the Serpergris vial already hung around the blonde Storm Hawk’s neck. “See you back on Vapos!” At that moment, the whole ship shuddered violently, for the massive dragon outside had managed to aim a much more precise torrent of fire at its rear.

“You might want to _hurry_!” Stork positively shrieked back to Finn, who didn’t need to be told twice.

A few moments later, Finn’s Skimmer went flying fast away from the _Condor_ into the rocky landscape; a tiny, insignificant-looking thing compared to the carrier ship and the vast land all around it. But despite the vehicle’s small size, Smaug still whipped his gaze on his long neck at the smaller sky-ride breaking away from the main ship – and his yellow orbs narrowed particularly on the small, dragon-headed vial, containing a glowing orange-red stone, hanging from the new sky-ride pilot’s neck; that he saw with his keen draconic eyesight.

Finn got a sense in his peripheral vision of something not quite right as he flew away into the craggy landscape, a sense screaming fear and danger into his brain. One look over his shoulder was all he needed to confirm it, as he saw the massive dragon instantly changing its course, abandoning the _Condor_ to go straight for him. His heart skipping a beat, Finn revved hard on his Skimmer and sent it shooting fast, deeper into a valley that looked narrow enough to give the giant dragon some trouble, but the dragon was closing in the distance between them fast. At the same time, Stork had slowed and twisted the _Condor_ in the air as he saw, with terror in his eyes, the dragon going straight after Finn.

“Come on!” Finn growled to himself, blue eyes narrowing with determination on the hole that went straight through the thick rock wall ahead of him right out to the other side. His Skimmer was ploughing ahead with tremendous speed towards it, Finn not even noticing the dragon seeming to pull off far behind him in its course.

Finn’s ride went whooshing in. Then it burst out the other side – just in time by one second for the dragon to come barrelling in from where it had flown around, and send the sky-ride hurtling on a collision course straight out of the air with the impact in the creature’s shoulder.

Finn screamed as he had never screamed before, terror unlike he’d experienced much before building with the sound, as his Skimmer was sent spiralling and hurtling out of control; doomed to plough to a nasty end on the rocky ground quite a way below. But it was just at that moment that the _Condor_ came swooping in as if out of nowhere, catching Finn just in time as both he and his damaged Skimmer went violently rolling along its bay ramp. Finn just catching with a violent smack against the ship bow’s walling, while his sky-ride fell past him through the ship’s open bay doors.

But neither Storm Hawks had even a moment to celebrate saving Finn from death, before Stork had turned his gaze just in time to see the huge dragon come swooping towards them, hind-claws splayed out as it came upon the _Condor_. In one swift move, Smaug’s claws had dug into the ship’s roof, violently jerking it in the air as he stopped himself on it. All in the split-second before he tore himself away and took a significant chunk of the ship’s outer-hull away with him, leaving the ship to go careening out of control through the air.

The _Condor_ smashed into the edge of a towering jagged rock face hard, as though it had been specifically aimed to hit there, and the impact left the ship trailing smoke from its propulsion engines dangerously as it continuing hurtling and spinning down towards the ground; all whilst Smaug was already circling in the air. Finn had just a moment to let the laws of acceleration carry him into the ship’s open bay, and Stork to brace himself with shut-tight eyes at the helm. Before the ship crashed hard into the ground of the valley floor at the bottom, kicking up a cloud of dust before it; the impact propelling the two Storm Hawks through the open bay and windshields respectively, to go rolling out hard, landing in the dust and dirt of the ground before their ship.

Finn and Stork both groaned in more pain than even they were used to, from where they’d violently landed close together just ahead of their now-wrecked ship. The two of them, heavily bruised and battered and barely able to move their bodies; could only just lift their heads up from the dirt as the dragon came in, landing in a rushed-looking run. The creature’s glowing eyes were positively angry in its skull as it glared down upon them.

“ _So_ , the Sky Knights of the Atmos think to keep me from what I claim?!” the dragon positively raged in anger; Finn and Stork only had a moment to both gape up in utter horror at hearing it speak, its powerful and fearsome voice reverberating through the valley. Smaug didn’t need the words forced out of the two filthy mortals’ mouths to clearly see it all over them, the clothing and proof that they were with the Sky Knights squadrons that defended the mortals in Atmos.

“Except…” Smaug stopped as he thought, though the contained rage in his eyes and growling voice didn’t lessen slightly; “what use would any Sky Knights have for such a meagre, valuable trinket?! _Unless_ …” Finn looked from where he lay sprawled and battered on the ground at the mention of the Serpergris; to see the vial with its glowing content, lying several metres away from him on the ground. He just strained to try and crawl his way over to reach it while the _talking_ dragon seemed to be distracted; when suddenly a gigantic winged foreclaw like a bat’s slammed down violently and aggressively, right between Finn and the Serpergris. At the same time, the dragon seemed to have reached a conclusion in its rage-musings.

“Unless these Sky Knights _need_ such a thing for some nefarious purpose of their own; it is to appease a threatening enemy or to bring some sort of peace or salvation to a pack of troubled weaklings perhaps, _isn’t it_!” The dragon sharply whirled its frightening, blazing eyes straight back down onto Finn and Stork below it, at the last two words.

Finn and Stork each felt an automatic compulsion to reply under that dragon’s burning, frightening glare, however rage-blinded its intelligence currently was. And in the moment when Finn realised that this dragon had no intention of letting them keep the Serpergris, and that he and Stork were both battered and helpless, he found himself replying freely.

“ _Yes_ …” Finn managed to force out, his voice heaving as breathing hurt his throat. He hoped desperately that there was even just a shred of kindness in this creature as he pleaded: “But the people of Terra Vapos need it… _please_ , if they don’t get it, they’ll all be _gone_!”

A resonant hum rumbled deeply within the dragon’s powerful chest in interest at that as it raised a scaly brow.

“Oh, will they now?” it murmured in its deep voice, but it was not an expression of pity at all. “Very well…” It brought its head on its long neck right up close towards Finn and Stork; who were both looking up from on the ground. “Then in that case, you can live in the knowledge that you _failed_ them and cost them their _lives_!” As the two young mortals on the ground were left to gape appalled at the creature’s utter lack of sympathy, Smaug whirled his crocodilian head away and began stalking off on all fours across the valley floor; picking the tiny Serpergris up in his hind-paw, as he made to climb towards a vantage point from where to take to the air-

BLAST!

Smaug screeched loudly in surprise as he was assaulted by bolts of energy from above, which hit him right in the face around his eye area to disorient and briefly blind him. Shaking the assaults to his vision off in his fury, Smaug craned his head as he looked upward to where they’d come from – to see two new sky-rides had arrived on the scene. One four-winged ride with the energy-propulsion of crystals out of two engines keeping it aloft, the other ride held up in the air with the assistance of circularly-rotating blades. The red-haired human boy on the former craft caught Smaug’s glare with his own green-iris eyes, unflinching.

“YEARGH!” The girl who was piloting the other craft and whom Smaug hadn’t taken notice of until now, shot another energy-bolt from her long metal staff at Smaug’s head; which had the dragon roaring furiously and running forward along the ground, taking to the air to attack them. Both the two crafts immediately took evasive manoeuvres in the air, as Smaug opened his jaws wide and unleashed a fiery torrent to the heavens, which blazed through the air where the two had been just a moment ago. The girl took her ride twisting in a downward spiralling flight-pattern around Smaug’s huge body, as she tried sending a blast at the wing membrane of the flying dragon’s forelimb – which proved just as useless as striking at the scales. The beast immediately whirled its blazing gaze to glare on her at that.

Whilst Piper kept the dragon distracted snapping its jaws and trying to breathe its fire upon her in the air, Aerrow and Radarr went swooping on their ride straight for where Finn and Stork were lying in a bad way; the Skimmer switching to bike-mode as it touched down upon the ground and braked to a stop. The red-haired Sky Knight of the Storm Hawks immediately dismounted whilst Radarr stayed looking on at the co-pilot’s seat; coming straight over to crouch down over his battered squadron-members.

“Are you two okay?” Aerrow asked them, concerned.

“Define okay,” Stork murmured gravely from where he was lying on his chest, his face underneath his emo-like hair bruising and caked with dirt.

“We could be worse,” Finn managed to wheeze out with a grin – though Aerrow sensed both of them weren’t quite in their usual moods, even given the circumstances. “But that thing-” Finn pointed to where the dragon was viciously trying to murder Piper “-has the Serpergris that the people of Terra Vapos need to stop them fading away to nothing.”

“Can you two walk?” Aerrow asked them both as he tried helping them onto their feet.

“Yeah, we’re fine!” Finn quipped, putting up a grin.

“Get back into the _Condor_ while Piper, Radarr and I deal with the dragon and get the Serpergris away from it,” Aerrow commanded like a leader much older than he was.

“The _Condor_ ’s engines are damaged, and I don’t think it’s going to do anything to stop that thing!” Stork wheezed out harshly, pointing to the dragon that was snapping at Piper.

“Just get in there and work on fixing the ship or taking your sky-rides out of here, we’ll keep the dragon from going near you,” Aerrow commanded fluidly. “Move!” Finn and Stork both turned and helped each-other limp quickly back to the crashed ship, whilst Aerrow turned and took his Skimmer blasting to fly straight back into the fray and rejoin Piper. Even as Radarr looked anything but easy in his co-pilot seat next to Aerrow at what they were heading into.

Piper tried flying up close to the dragon’s head and getting quick blasts from her crystal-staff directly into its eyeballs to blind it; but she had to abandon that tactic when the creature caught on and started moving its head too quickly for her to get a clear shot, and at one point it snapped its deadly jaws far too close to her. Not a moment too soon, Piper saw Aerrow and Radarr flying back in. Aerrow quickly got the dragon’s attention as he used the Lightning Claw, to send a powerful energy-blast to the protective hide on the back of the creature’s spike-crowned head.

While the dragon was now distracted dealing with both of them at once, Piper quickly looked it all over for weaknesses. The dragon’s hide seemed to be indestructible all over; all their hits from both their energy weapons and the crystals Piper currently had for her staff, just bounced harmlessly off wherever they hit. Piper thought for a moment to perhaps try lodging one shot at just the right angle to get through the cracks between the scales, but dismissed it, as the red and dull-gold scales of the dragon’s hide looked to have no room for anything to get under them that way.

Then Piper’s eyes landed on one particular scale that stood out on the dragon’s thorax – a single crystalline-clear oddity on the front of the dragon’s chest, to the left side; frankly looking more like a crust of clear-coloured crystal than a real scale, as Piper looked more closely at it. She quickly thought it over in her head, wondering if that discoloured odd scale could be a weaker point than any of the others. It seemed unlikely but it was worth a shot, so Piper immediately took her Heliscooter flying down straight towards it; whilst Aerrow kept the dragon occupied.

Reaching the odd scale without the hovering dragon noticing, Piper leapt in the air off the seat of her sky-ride, bringing her crystal-staff poised above her head to attack like a master martial artist with a bo staff – and with a cry, she struck. The effect was instantaneous as bright white light flashed out from the struck crystalline scale to wash over both Smaug and Piper, the dragon screeching out and Piper likewise crying out in the air, as the both of their minds were pulled simultaneously into a shared vision.

_Piper saw this very same dragon setting a wooden town on fire beneath him…_

_She saw an arrow bury itself deep through his chest…_

_She saw the dragon fly above the flames to the skies, screaming…_

_And she saw a strange embrace of nothingness close in on him as the light in his eyes faded…_

Piper snapped back into her body with a ragged gasp, feeling for a moment like she were floating, before she realised she were on Aerrow’s flying Skimmer; practically in his lap. Suddenly, Piper felt strange, more specifically _aware_ of what was different with her, what had changed, as she felt the immaterial line linking out of her. And the whole air seemed to buzz around her unpleasantly from the contact and being so close.

Piper realised she and the dragon must have been out for a moment, as she looked over to where the giant monster was lying on its side on the ground, rising back onto all fours. Aerrow must have saved her from falling. But when the dragon recovered and turned that piercing fiery gaze of his straight onto her with an astonished expression – not onto the Skimmer, onto _her_ – Piper immediately realised that this creature was indeed exactly the thing on the other end of the line that she could only get the very vaguest, most unconscious impression of. Piper felt an instant lurch of her heart inside of her at realising that, as she didn’t know where she wanted to begin comprehending what it meant.

What disturbed Piper even more was when, after just a few seconds of staring; the dragon’s face instantly took on a more conniving, pleased-looking expression, a monstrous grin slowly spreading across its lips. And if she concentrated on the tether linking between them while their gazes were locked, Piper could almost feel the frightening dark emotion that the dragon was currently experiencing.

“My, now this is particularly unexpected,” the dragon murmured almost gleefully, slowly slinking across the ground on all fours, with its fiery yellow eyes remaining fixed firmly on Piper. Aerrow scowled at the beast, Radarr in the co-pilot seat joining by growling defiantly a bit; as Aerrow positioned himself almost protectively over Piper in his lap.

Smaug’s eyes were glowing as he could hardly believe it. He had found it – he remembered the spark of _something_ that he’d felt a few days ago, and now he’d felt it again but more solidly; when this human girl before him had struck him on the former weak spot where the black arrow had pierced him at Lake-Town, and they’d both shared a vision. Whatever doubt was in Smaug’s mind was instantly cleared away by the buzz they both felt in the air now at their proximity – this girl was what lay at the other end of the connecting tether.

And what was more, Smaug had felt it, he had felt the well of _unlimited_ power lying at the centre of the line between them like a glow in the centre of a rope; just waiting, _begging_ for them to slacken the line and come together over it!

Aerrow, Piper and Radarr were all unnerved as they saw the dragon just look, grinning and almost mad with dark glee in its eyes, as it made no move to attack. Though as they did that, Radarr just managed to catch sight of something else as he thought he saw something see-through moving along the rocky valley landscape – it was only when Radarr saw Stork half-emerge, to quietly pick up the Serpergris from where the artefact lay forgotten on the ground away from the dragon’s hind-paws, that Radarr realised he saw the Stork-Mobile camouflaged. Radarr made out the Stork-Mobile’s movements alone as it rode fast away along the landscape without making any noise, until it had gone far enough away behind the dragon to take to the air unnoticed and fly off.

“It seems that my opponent in the tug of war has revealed herself,” the dragon said in its rich, powerful growling voice that cut through the air as it spoke the words with perfect articulation; bringing all attention straight back to the monster, as it continued very slowly along the ground towards where the Skimmer was hovering stopped in the air.

Aerrow looked down at Piper, shocked, as everyone could _feel_ on the dragon’s strangely powerful gaze how it was _her_ the dragon was focused on specifically. Piper half-balled two fists over her chest almost protectively, as though she were naked under the mighty creature’s piercing vision and overwhelming power; never breaking eye contact with the dragon.

“Who, and _what_ , are you?” Piper exclaimed questioningly to the dragon; there was a bit of bravery and defiance in her eyes as she glared, but that was it as she remained curled up almost protectively against the dragon’s gaze.

“Oh, you don’t know who I am?” the dragon murmured, its glowing eyes widening. It dramatically reeled back its crocodilian head on its long serpentine neck, arching said neck high in a glorious display as it roared: “I am _SMAUG_! I am Smaug the Magnificent, Smaug the Tyrannical; the Dread of mortals who laid low Men’s warriors of old, the greatest dragon in living memory!”

“What do you want with my squadron?” Aerrow spat out the question; his tone clearly conveying how he’d only known this _Smaug_ , as he called himself, for a few minutes, and in that time the dragon had already earned his hostility. The dragon looked as though it had only just remembered that Aerrow was even there as it looked back at the sound of the redhead’s voice.

“I want _nothing_ of you, or your little _pack-mates_ , _boy_ ,” Smaug snarled nastily at the Sky Knight with his teeth bared, spikes on his head flexing. “What I want-” he turned his fiery gaze back onto Piper with an unnerving smug light in them “-is _her_.” The horrible feeling that had been building inside of Piper reached climax at that point.

“What are you talking about?!” Aerrow demanded to know loudly; but the dragon was now completely ignoring him as if he wasn’t even there, fiery eyes focused on Piper and seeming almost fascinated with her. Then, Smaug pointed a taloned finger out at Piper as he addressed her:

“Young one, I offer you a bargain,” Smaug said in his bestial but articulate voice. “I will let your friends fly off on their merry way from here with their lives… if _you give yourself to me_ for their safety.”

Radarr practically squawked, equal parts baffled and aghast. Piper had a look of defensiveness and terror in her amber eyes, as she seemed to curl her body in protectively that much further, looking horrified at what Smaug had just demanded of her. Aerrow glared defiantly back at the dragon, furious.

“That’s _not happening_ ,” he spat, pointing one of his lightning-blades.

“I don’t remember it being you that I was asking,” Smaug hissed as venomously as a real viper at Aerrow with his frightening foul temper; and at the frightening tone, Aerrow seemed to for the moment back down, to Smaug’s pleasure as he grinned smugly. Piper appeared to look away and ball up further into herself for a moment.

“What shall it be, child?” the dragon’s voice taunted her cruelly as he waited. “Do your friends live, or do they _die_?” Piper whirled and glared defiantly at Smaug.

“I’m not going anywhere with you!” Piper growled at him, despite all the fear under her defiance. That seemed to be the last straw for the dragon as he suddenly burst forward on the ground with frightening speed, his eyes wide and burning bright as he roared furiously. Orange light was shining at the back of his throat as he leapt straight for them, flapping his wings as he took to the air. Aerrow immediately swerved his ride in the air to let Smaug’s huge form slink right past in a long red blur, and at the same time took the Skimmer gliding away fast, into the depths of the rocky terrain. Aerrow, Piper and Radarr could only hope as they blasted away at full throttle, that the dragon would be too busy chasing them to remember Finn in the _Condor_. Their hopes proved true when Smaug whirled his fiery gaze after them, twisting round in the air. The crashed ship was left behind as the Storm Hawks and the dragon flew away into the barren landscape.

Aerrow took his Skimmer shooting and swerving through the vast rocky valleys of the terrain, Smaug flying after them right behind – he was moving at faster speed than his prey, as he seemed to be even more motivated by claiming Piper than he’d been in getting the Serpergris.

The Skimmer’s three occupants heard the roaring sound that signalled Smaug’s fire-breath rushing up behind them, and Aerrow incredibly manoeuvred to avoid the burning torrent just in time as it blasted forth through the air. They navigated around rocky protruding spikes easily, the small sky-ride having even freer space through the expansive valleys than a carrier ship, or a dragon of equal size. But that didn’t do anything to hinder Smaug as he came ruthlessly flying fast right after them, climbed higher or twisting this way to avoid every hindrance in his path; glowing eyes blazing furiously.

* * *

“Come on, _come on_!” Finn practically squealed frantically as he all but beat the crystal engines to get them running. He’d put the parts as best as he could where Stork had told him to, before the helmsman had gone out to slip away with the Serpergris while the dragon, Smaug, was distracted. But still the _Condor_ ’s damaged engines weren’t starting back up! Finn could only hope surely to heck that he hadn’t put the wrong bit here when it should have been there, and he desperately resorted to beating a wrench against this pipe and that around the inactive engine. He had to get the ship running again before the dragon got to his friends, and if he didn’t, then there would still be it coming back here to finish him off!

“Come on, _start_!”

Verbally pleading didn’t do anything for a moment. But then the central engine compartment through which rows of crystals stood out like spikes, glowed and flared to life before Finn’s face and began to rotate again, as the _Condor_ ’s main engine started back up.

“ _Yes_!” Finn exclaimed loudly.

* * *

Aerrow just barely swerved his Skimmer on its path through the narrowing valley to avoid another torrent of Smaug’s fire-breath, with the huge red dragon gaining ground on him and his friends fast. That must have been the tenth time in the last couple minutes that they’d just scraped being roasted alive in the air.

Aerrow swung one of his lightning blades from his seat driving, sending an energy bolt firing at Smaug – it missed the giant dragon. Piper leapt up into a fighting stance on the Skimmer, and fired a couple energy bolts from her crystal-staff at the pursuer. But Smaug shook the small explosion of light across his face off just as quickly, and he never even drooped in his flight, before fixing his fiery gaze back onto his target.

Piper took a moment to stare, uncertain.

“Aerrow, we can’t outfly him,” Piper turned to say back down to Aerrow – they needed to think of something else, and fast. A moment after she’d spoken, another torrent of flame just barely missed her as it roared by over her head, and the searing heat could clearly be felt on both the humans’ skin.

“I know, I’m thinking,” Aerrow said back to her, stressing it, with his eyes fixed hard on where they were going. Piper chewed her lip over as she scanned around the barren valley’s slopes for a possible way out. That was when she spotted the tiny, almost invisible cave mouth, and remembered the tunnel networks that ran through here.

“There!” Piper pointed, and Aerrow and Radarr’s gazes both immediately followed hers to the tiny cave hole. Aerrow slightly smirked as he instantly caught on, while Radarr whined keenly in despair as he knew where this was about to go.

One second later, Piper leapt from her stance back down into her seat behind Aerrow, in the moment that he took the Skimmer shooting straight for the cave-mouth; the sky-ride just missing Smaug’s jaws in its changed course as the dragon had tried to snap them out of the air. The small sky-ride shot in a straight line towards the valley wall, the huge dragon twisting in the air as Smaug made to go for them…

In the moment where the sky-ride and the dragon behind it were shooting in a straight line, the opposing forces of the wind blew hard against the occupants in the air. In a single, random moment, Piper’s fingers’ strong hold on Aerrow’s waist slipped a little, and for a split second she cried out and almost went flying off the Skimmer to go straight towards Smaug’s face.

“PIPER!” Aerrow called back over the roaring wind in distress as Piper just managed to regain her foothold in time. Then, the Skimmer switched to bike-mode just a second before it shot through into the cave opening. The Skimmer continued in a straight line away from the daylight; one second into which, the earth all around trembled as Smaug’s huge form came thunderously down upon on the tiny cave mouth just behind. The dragon roared in angrily at the mortals, though his jaws were too big to fit through the opening. Then two seconds later, he sent a column of flames surging forth like napalm straight after the Storm Hawks.

Aerrow didn’t need to look behind them to feel the building heat and light chasing after them in the dark tunnel, but thankfully he got the illumination from it to see the tunnel fork in two ahead; one right and the other straight on. And he took the off-centre turn just in time to scrape away from the coming flames. Still though, for a moment after, the dragon’s tremendous roars in its anger made the entire underground tunnel shake around them.

“Piper, where do we go from here?” Aerrow asked quickly, as he braked his sky-ride around the corner and turned to look over his shoulder at his trusted best friend.

“All of these tunnels are supposed to lead back to the surface, no dead-ends,” Piper explained as fast as she recalled what she knew about this area; “keep going!”

Aerrow didn’t need to be told twice, taking the Skimmer blasting off in a random direction through the dark tunnels; until finally, they saw a circle of daylight coming up ahead and shot straight for it; out a cliff-face into another part of the crags and valleys, away from where they’d slipped Smaug. The dragon was nowhere in sight as Aerrow screeched his ride to a stop on the valley slope, kicking up dirt. But a much more welcome sight greeted them instead as the three saw the _Condor_ , battered but flying, rising up into the air from beyond the jagged slope lip ahead of them.

The three at the Skimmer on the ground didn’t even have to wave up at it before Finn, at the helm, spotted them, through the broken-open centre of the windshields. The ship immediately went gliding down straight for the three; though one could tell by the blunt, plain flight pattern and the way its turns seemed a little crooked in the air, that piloting the _Condor_ was definitely Stork’s job. Thankfully, the ship was upon the three within seconds, hovering just slightly above the ground as the landing ramp extended.

“Nice flying, Finn!” Aerrow called up, though not too loudly lest the dragon that was still somewhere amongst the landscape hear them. Then Piper in particular heard a dreaded voice carrying on the air from faraway but not far enough.

“ _Where are you, young ones_ …?” the dragon’s voice hissed savagely out on the air from whatever part of the valley-lands he was searching for them.

“Let’s go,” Aerrow half-whispered before he, Piper and Radarr were taking the Skimmer riding straight up the ship’s ramp.

“Finn, take us out of here!” Aerrow called up as soon as they were in the Skimmer bay, the ramp ascending…

“Aye!” Finn called back down from the bridge at the command, and quickly got the ship rising upwards. Within a second, the _Condor_ was rotating almost turbulently in the air. Then it was shooting fast straight away from the rocky valley terrain into the skies beyond… And the occupants on board couldn’t have been feeling more relieved, rotten, beat-up and haunted all at once as they were safely flying away and leaving the dragon behind still hunting for them.

* * *

Stork’s battered and worn-out form climbed up the large statue of the Flame of Vapos to reach the water-filled basin held high in the statue’s arm, where he’d thrown the Serpergris in. After a day’s worth of stealing this thing from Murk Raiders, followed immediately by getting attacked, chased for a long while, and almost killed by a giant, intelligent dragon-monster; safe to say, Stork was hardly feeling in the mood for this when he’d thrown the Serpergris into here as King Agar had instructed, only to get a very letting-down nothing.

“Well, Serpergris,” Stork murmured as he peered, more like _glared_ , over the edge of the water basin at the object glowing at its bottom; “I’m not very impressed!” It was as if on cue a second later; that the orange stone began to shine out brighter with building intensity, the water in which it rested bubbling violently as the brightening glow cast shadows across Stork’s face.

Stork gave a short, nervous laugh as he realised he’d spoken too soon… about a second before he was sent flying back across with throne room with a cry as a powerful blast of orange light exploded out from the basin, its power bursting and rolling out in a wave across the entire terra.

Both in the throne room and across Terra Vapos, the people; who had been lying sick and moaning on their city’s steps and floors, faded see-through as glass and dead-looking as corpses when Stork had arrived; instantly felt their strength replenished as they all started rising up, their hands solid before their eyes again. Whilst back in the throne room, a very bitter Merp was left lying on the floor with sorely-burned face and hair now added to his bruising.

“It figures…” Stork murmured despondently.

It was about half an hour afterwards that Aerrow, Piper, Finn and Radarr arrived on Terra Vapos in the _Condor_. Stork had written a song for the whole court about Finn the Great Domo’s achievement as his friends all listened with the whole throne room. Piper was surprised that Stork had been named the ‘Domo’s’ minstrel for his quest. But Stork had left the dragon they’d encountered out of the song entirely.

King Agar awarded all of the Storm Hawks present a medal of gold each for bravery – non-Vapos gold he’d specified; since he’d demonstrated that nothing ever truly left Vapos, when the message falcon that Finn had thought disintegrated after delivering its message, returned to his side. But though it was a good relief and certainly got all their feelings back up; throughout the celebration and as Finn and Stork had told their comrades all about the Domo’s new quest, none of the Storm Hawks’ minds ever truly left the dragon-monster they had encountered, the one they had thought to be nothing worse than a rampaging beast until now.

Piper’s mind in particular, after they left Vapos and picked up Junko from the dentist (then went on to explain everything to him); kept going over the strange vision that she and the creature had shared, the threading link she had felt connecting them (no longer as prominent now since they’d gotten far away from him), and what all of this meant. Her friends’ minds didn’t forget about her and Smaug the dragon-monster either, as they privately looked over at her in concern every now and then.

* * *

Smaug had been enraged even further when he’d realised that the squadron of mortals had escaped him; with the disappearance of their ship after he’d searched every nook and cranny of the landscape confirming it. In his anger, Smaug had smashed and blasted the lifeless rocky formations around him with his fire.

But once he was over his anger at the mortals’ escape (and the loss of the Serpergris with them which had added to Smaug’s rage and bitterness), Smaug had to go over what he had learned today. He had found the source at the other end of that strange threading connection, in the form of that _girl_ – and he’d gotten another, this time more-real taste of the great power that it could provide him with. Smaug had felt stronger than ever before at the contact, it had boosted and augmented his strength and prowess that was already there to near-uncontainable levels. And as a great fire-drake who’d spent most of the first couple centuries of his life since maturing, clawing his way through and above other drakes to the dominance he knew to be rightfully his; that was saying something.

Even though the boost had disappeared again as soon as he and the girl had broken contact, Smaug had felt how it could strengthen him more _permanently_ if he harnessed it enough – and for that, he already knew that he _needed the girl_. As for finding her, Smaug had her scent now and he knew what she looked like. He even had a name to go by, he’d overheard the insolent boy that had been with her speak it to her during their little chase: _Piper_.

He didn’t care how long it took, he would have that youngling creature right with him where she could provide him with all the power and potential he desired to make himself stronger. And Smaug furthermore had no intention of letting that girl go off easy for her insolence here today; if she thought she would simply disobey his demands like that and get away without consequences, then she was sorely mistaken!


	5. Discovery

A week had passed since the Storm Hawks’ first encounter with Smaug. A week of more adventures and more foiling Cyclonian plots; but besides all that, they were searching for answers about the giant talking dragon-monster they’d met, none more so than Piper as she looked into the connection she’d felt binding them – even now, though it was inactive like it were sleeping since she’d gotten away from Smaug, if she concentrated she could feel the linking thread inside of her.

The first day after saving Terra Vapos with the Serpergris, Stork had been more paranoid than ever about the vicious dragon that had talked and had schemed, and seemed to be going crazy in his superstitions – though Piper remained rather doubtful that Smaug carried airborne pathogens that caused Wyrm Sclerosis, or produced specific soundwaves in his voice that increased risk of mindworm infection.

Piper’s research into crystal-mages and -arts from times as far back as the Great Sky Writers had revealed nothing like whatever was connecting her and Smaug, in any of the books or scrolls she researched. Trying to find out where Smaug had come from likewise hadn’t proved very fruitful so far, as all the books and records about dragon zoology and archaeology revealed nothing of intelligent dragons who could talk – they all described powerful, dangerous beasts but ultimately beasts, not malevolent, charismatic psychopaths. So Piper had started looking into the reports of dragon sightings, trying to trace where Smaug had come from and how, after dragons had seemingly been extinct in Atmos for over a millennium. As she traced the sightings and attacks further back in time; what she found had her stunned in her seat.

Piper immediately went from her workshop to see the guys on the bridge with her findings. The _Condor_ was just heading for a pit-stop for lunch when Piper came in.

“Piper, you okay?” Aerrow asked with a grin, pleased to see her come out of her room after she’d been spending most of her free time the last few days cooped up, researching.

“Barely,” Piper replied gravely as she unrolled her map on the bridge’s round table. Everyone gathered round her as she said: “I’ve been tracing where the first reported dragon sightings have been occurring, trying to find where Smaug came from, and I think I’ve found it.” She pointed to the specific region on the map she’d circled in red, her face grim as she said to the guys: “The skies around Terra Xoam _, one month ago_.”

“Terra Xoam?” Junko questioned aloud. “Like where we beat the Cyclonians to the Forbidden City?!”

“Exactly,” Piper replied, her voice not getting more positive in spirits. “And if I’ve read and dated these reports right, Smaug was first seen around there less than a week after that incident.”

Aerrow frowned, troubled, as he looked down on the circled area on the map and had a feeling he too knew exactly where this was going: what if, somehow; _they_ had set Smaug loose when they were in the Forbidden City? Aerrow immediately remembered back to meeting the Oracle in the treasure chamber, what she’d shown him, her words to him, and him setting her free.

“I don’t remember seeing any big evil dragons behind any huge bars when we were there,” Finn half-scoffed sceptically at Piper’s findings.

“Finn, don’t you remember _anything_ from the last time?” Piper questioned, her tone with the Storm Hawk marksman a mix of exasperated and irritated more so than anything else. “ _Nothing is what it seems_ , and chances are we only saw a _fraction_ of the real City. There could have been more hidden rooms, underground chambers, isolated cells…” Piper stopped herself as she realised she was getting a little too far ahead.

“Either way, it’s too much of a coincidence that this dragon appears in the Atmos there, _right_ around the time we freed the Oracle,” Aerrow declared; remembering what he’d done, and unable to stop himself wondering now if he’d made the right choice. “And if we want to find out where Smaug came from and how to stop him, this is how we can start.” Aerrow’s eyes narrowed, determined to get some answers. But still, there was the chance that it could just be a coincidence, he half-hopefully noted.

“You don’t suppose the dragon could have just come from a neighbouring terra or out of the Wastelands around there, do you?” Junko piped up nervously, a finger to his teeth.

“Not anymore,” Piper replied grimly as she took out an Atmosian newspaper and held it up for everyone on the bridge to see the front page:

MISSING FAMED EXPLORER FOUND STARVED, MUTILATED AND DERANGED – IN INFAMOUS JUNGLE TERRA RUIN, the headline read.

Underneath was a picture, clearly just the best of several attempts the photographer had managed to take of the frantically-thrashing individual; of Professor I.J. Domiwick, looking very different to how the Storm Hawks had last seen him; his handsome face was gaunt and his hair dishevelled, and his eyes looked wide and maniacal, with his face twisted like he were babbling insanely; as two figures were leading him away in a plain straightjacket.

That settled it for everyone on the ship, and the _Condor_ was taken flying away from its original destination to head towards Terra Xoam.

* * *

Stork had the _Condor_ parked in the same place on the jungle terra as they’d left it last time; and he’d been _very_ insistent on staying with it to get it out of harm’s way ASAP if he saw any dragons within a hundred miles, whilst Aerrow, Piper, Radarr, Finn and Junko rode off ahead to the Forbidden City by themselves.

The Storm Hawks could have taken the same hidden entrance in as they had the first time, but Piper wanted to go around to be sure, looking for any other ways that something too big for that entrance could have come out through. She soon got her answer as the adolescents’ rides came to the same clearing where Domiwick and the Cyclonians had originally drilled their way in; to find large rocks scattered across the clearing in a clear outward explosion from the tunnel mouth – which had been forced out of its original manmade shape with great strength, two large gashes furrowed deep into the surface of the rocky wall on one side.

“That doesn’t look like something Cyclonians smashed open,” Finn said grimly as he, Aerrow and Radarr all stared at the sight before them, whilst Piper was already walking forward to look more closely.

“Not smashed…” Piper murmured as she crouched down to look over the collection of small rock-rubble around the tunnel-mouth. “Something _blasted_ its way out through here from the _inside_.” She added as she looked over a small blackened-grey boulder small enough for her to lift in her hands: “And whatever it was, it made a _lot_ of heat…”

Finn and Junko both looked less than cheerful at the news, while Aerrow was looking in at the tunnel opening with a calm, stern mask of almost professionalism.

* * *

“Whoa…” Finn was murmuring a few minutes later, at the sight before them; the sound of his voice echoing throughout the wide, spacious cavern that was dimly lit by a single sunbeam filtering in. A sporadic couple of the stone towers making up the ancient city ruin before them had collapsed or been forced ajar slightly by some great weight balancing upon them, though with a distance of at least forty feet spanning between the affected structures.

“The damage is so far apart,” Piper noted at the sight in front of them. “Almost as if something _big_ was just crawling over the City from somewhere…”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions too quickly,” Aerrow softly eased his squadron. “This could have been caused when part of the place collapsed.”

“What about _that_?” Finn deadpanned mirthlessly as he pointed out a finger. Aerrow and Piper both followed their gazes to where Finn was pointing – to a faint but clearly-there spatter of dried red, across the rock bridge from them, closer to the Forbidden City. Piper immediately went crossing the bridge to where the spatter was, with Aerrow and then the others following shortly behind, to take a closer look. As Piper knelt down to look at the red spatter, she found it was exactly what she thought it was.

“Blood,” she said as she turned and looked up at Aerrow behind her; her face slightly uneasy, both with a mild girlish disgust and with further grimness at all they were finding. The newspapers had said that Domiwick was missing an arm when he’d been found malnourished and half-dead in the cavern depths here, the limb having been seemingly cut off and cauterised by some heat all in the same moment.

“Well, I guess we can say bye-bye to coincidence…” Aerrow murmured, taking in the whole sight rife with dried blood and damaged bits of ruin again. Piper was already standing back up and looking to the bits of damage on the Forbidden City …

“Guys, look at the angles these buildings are damaged at,” Piper said for everyone to hear, pointing to the ruin. “Whatever made them must have been crawling over the ruin from somehow _behind_ , on the other side! Come on!”

“Wait!” Aerrow called ahead to Piper, who was already heading off, a few seconds before he and the other guys were following right behind her. Though the Storm Hawks thought most of the Forbidden City’s traps to have been disabled after the last time they’d come here and set many of them off, they still wanted to be cautious around the City in case they’d missed one or two. The squadron proceeded up the ancient ruin’s stone steps closer to the top, and manoeuvred around the main temple to see over to what was beyond there.

Piper arrived ahead of the guys at the back of the Forbidden City, with the others catching up just behind her; to be staring down and down, into a long yet thin rocky tunnel, that seemed to stretch forever downward into total darkness. Though there were no visible signs to indicate anything big had gone out of its way to leave claw-marks in the rock in its passing through here, Piper was more than willing to bet that this big tunnel hidden behind here, definitely large enough for a dragon to squeeze its way through; was where Smaug had emerged from.

“Oh, yeah, he definitely came out from here,” she declared, peering down into the dark depths of the tunnel that must have led deep enough down to reach the heart of the terra. “But… where could he have come from before that?”

“Um… perhaps it’s like in that movie we saw last week, where the rain-mummy is sealed in a tomb deep underground for, um, _centurie_ s, sleeping, until it’s freed,” Junko piped up thoughtfully. Finn just rolled his eyes beside his wallop friend at the suggestion.

Piper’s first reaction would have been to dismiss such a theory as well, but actually… the more she thought about it, the more it seemed to add up. Could Smaug have been hibernating down there, sealed away or trapped for centuries; since before the last dragons were known to have died out, perhaps even since before the Forbidden City was built?

But in such a case, Piper still wondered one thing: if this were so, what could have set Smaug free?

* * *

About ten minutes later, the _Condor_ was flying away from Terra Xoam, headed to a new destination in the north. After a three-hour journey, the ship docked at a specific high-profile mental hospital; where Piper found herself at a table in the visitor’s lounge with a cup of hot chocolate in hand, waiting for the patient she’d come to see.

Piper had been waiting for nearly half an hour now and was just beginning to wonder what was taking this long; when an orderly came towards the table she was at and sat the patient down opposite Piper, hissing a warning in the madman’s ear to behave before leaving them. As the man in the straightjacket looked up glowering, from under his blonde hair that had gone messy and unkempt; Piper saw that while his once-handsome face was much more gaunt and pale than she remembered, it was definitely him.

“Wait, I know you,” he murmured in that gravelly voice of his, which sounded both heavier and less stable than before. “The little lady from the Forbidden City, I’m right, yes?”

“ _Domiwick_ ,” Piper greeted him in a cold, distrusting voice, holding his gaze levelly. Domiwick opened his mouth and let out a drawn-out, high chuckle; different than the calm, snobby one Piper remembered from the last time they’d met.

“So, what’s brought you here to visit me? Came here to ask about my _missing arm_?” In that moment, Domiwick’s blue eyes suddenly went wide and manic as he dangled the single empty sleeve of his tightly-pulled white straightjacket on show.

“Something like that,” Piper half-spat. “You said you lost that arm to a _dragon_ you saw on Terra Xoam.” She implored: “But where and when did you see it?” Domiwick chuckled again, this time a very high giggle of a laugh that made it very clear if it weren’t already that there were a few screws loose with him.

“Oh, I’ve told everyone all about my encounter with the powerful, live dragon that _talked to me_ , but _they_ don’t listen,” Domiwick murmured hoarsely, his grin spreading as though this were some holy revelation that he alone knew to be truth over all others. He half-leaned a little over the table as he said: “The dragon came to me, _crawling over the Forbidden City_. When he saw me, he asked so many questions that were so confusing to me at the time.”

“Like what?” Piper demanded. Domiwick giggled a little madly again.

“Oh, wouldn’t _you_ like to know?!” he hissed venomously, like he were a valuable owner addressing a would-be thief. “Wouldn’t you like to know what that great talking dragon, never before seen or heard of in _ALL of the Atmos_ he knew so little about, said?!” Domiwick suddenly started yelling as he violently stood up from his seat, the sound of his voice carrying as clearly around the room as the loud noise of his chair hitting the floor.

“You think you can find him too, be the second-best by getting to talk to such a _divinely fascinating_ creature?! HA, well you can’t ever be the _first_ to have the great honour of seeing, hearing and surviving that creature in the flesh, EVER!!” Domiwick had started this conversation deranged but calm, but now he was actually screaming like a lunatic.

“Never, that privilege was _all mine_!” Two orderlies had by now come over and started restraining Domiwick, and Piper realised she needed to hurry and was running out of time.

“Domiwick, _when_ did you see the dragon, how long after the City collapsed?” Piper quickly demanded to know as the orderlies wrestled the professor-turned-madman.

“You think you can find and stop that great, ancient beauty unseen to the world until now?!” Domiwick laughed disdainfully at her as he was being forcefully led away. “Professor I.J. Domiwick could barely stand against that beast, it _ate his arm_ as he stood TOE-TO-TOE WITH IT ON THE SAME DAY HE HAD THE ORACLE STONE TAKEN FROM HIM!!

“HOW CAN YOU OR ANYONE ELSE IN ATMOS STAND A CHANCE AGAINST THAT BEAST?! IT’S GOING TO COME, AND IT’S GOING TO EAT AND BURN YOU TOO, AND THEN IT’S GONNA BURN EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THE PEOPLE YOU KNOW UNTIL THERE’S NOTHING LEFT BUT LITTLE, CRISPY BITS OF…!!”

Domiwick’s mad yells faded as he was forcefully dragged out the double-doors and away; but what he’d said about _when_ he’d lost his arm to the dragon, right after losing the Oracle Stone, rung in Piper’s ears. It was all the evidence Piper needed to confirm exactly what she’d feared: Smaug had emerged on Terra Xoam the very same day she and the guys had been racing to stop Domiwick and the Cyclonians from getting the Oracle Stone. And another fear this all but confirmed for Piper; was wherever that dragon-monster had come from, something that had happened in the Forbidden City while they were in there that day was what had caused this.

* * *

When Piper returned to the _Condor_ and told the guys what Domiwick had said, they all immediately grew concerned and troubled at the news, puzzling over what could have happened when they were in the Forbidden City that could have brought Smaug out. Had they set off some trap that they hadn’t noticed?

Aerrow particularly was the most troubled, Piper could see it as he furrowed his brows in deep thought. He recounted aloud how the Oracle had shown him the future where the Cyclonians won, and had told him it would all change if he freed her, right before he’d destroyed her stone prison. Piper tried to assure Aerrow that he did what he thought was best, but Aerrow said that if he’d known it would mean unleashing something like this on Atmos then he would never have taken it so quickly. Piper retorted that if Aerrow hadn’t, it would mean a future where Cyclonia won with certainty, whereas now they at least had some chance to try and stop Smaug yet.

Which brought the topic of the talk back to Smaug’s interest in Piper and whatever was connecting them; which they hadn’t really properly discussed since the incident with the Serpergris. Aerrow was concerned that Smaug could somehow use the link to find Piper, and had suggested getting the _Condor_ somewhere secluded where he couldn’t find her; Stork had suggested hiding away in the cloaking fields of Terra Void for the next twenty years. But Piper adamantly insisted that she would be aware if Smaug was trying to trace her through their link, and truthfully she was sure of it, as she remembered how it had felt when they had made contact.

The guys left it at that, but all of them agreed that they had to find out about Smaug and Piper’s connection. At first Piper had searched for answers in science, history and known crystal-magic, but now it looked like she would have to resort to looking to less reliable sources for information.

It was a long day, and when it was over and the skies turned to night, Piper all but collapsed on her bed with exhaustion at everything they had found out (coupled with the fact she hadn’t really slept much since the incident when they’d encountered Smaug and found out about the connection). She quickly drifted off into a deep sleep, new thoughts and fears about their role in Smaug’s arrival haunting her mind. It was just as Piper’s mind had gone deep into a pleasant, recharging state of dreamless unconsciousness; that that very peace and comfort was pierced and shattered by a familiar, powerful-sounding male voice calling out strong and fearsome through the dark.

 _“Greetings,_ Piper _…” A pair of blazing, glowing yellow eyes opened up against the blackness right before Piper, glaring right down upon her being._

_Piper’s subconscious snapped with awareness right into a mental construct of her form the same as recoiling sharply in fear; as the mental intruder that had penetrated into her mind from the outside coalesced his form into that huge red and gold dragon before her, slowly emerging from the dark at the edges. Piper could only stare up terrified, into Smaug’s monstrous face leering down at her._

_“What do you want, Smaug?” Piper shouted up at the dragon, not liking how her voice trembled more than she’d expected it to as she spoke in his presence._

_“Well… I want to clear up some hard feelings between us,” Smaug crooned tauntingly in his frightening growling voice, positively smirking as he slinked around at the edges of the mindspace. “After all, it was rather_ rude _of you to leave on our last conversation without saying goodbye!”_

_“What did you expect, since you were only trying to take me for yourself and destroy all of the rest of us,” Piper spat back; perhaps a little more meekly than she would have done against anyone else. To be honest, even in the mind, Smaug seriously terrified her._

_“It matters not,” Smaug murmured dismissively, giving Piper the demeaning look out of his eye that a schoolteacher would give an uncomprehending child. “It is_ you _I’ve come to repay for the grievances you and your little friends have caused me!”_

 _As Piper watched Smaug rise to his_ huge _full height on all four limbs, she had two seconds to register the shining orange light of Smaug’s fire climbing up his long neck to the back of his throat; a second before he unleashed a bellyful of flames from his jaws upon Piper’s mind-projection, making her scream in mental agony as the fire spread out to bathe all the dark corners of her mindscape. The flames didn’t stop even as Smaug ceased the flow from his jaws, continuing to burn and blaze over both Piper’s form in her mind and everything around her. The pain was excruciating and felt_ very _real as her mental form’s flesh started to melt away, her face being eaten by the heat down to the bone, and then even her skull starting to turn to charcoal. Piper barely comprehended the faint, alien voice, seemingly in another realm, calling her name through the overwhelming torture…_

“Piper!”

Piper shot awake with a very loud cry, the pain in her head instantly ceasing as her dreamscape dissipated and her waking mind was pulled back to the real world. Piper’s bedsheet around her was soaked with sweat as though she’d been burning up with some massive fever in her sleep, and her sheets were kicked and tussled into a beaten pile at the end of the bed from her frantic thrashing and kicking. Piper took a moment to gasp in large, steady gulps of air as she lay there in her room; which would have normally cooled her body down, but right now, Piper’s body temperature was like that of a radiator. She saw Aerrow, sitting on the edge of her bed from where he’d pulled her back to consciousness, a very concerned look creasing his face.

“Piper, I heard you screaming in your sleep, and when I came in, you felt like you were burning up with a fever,” Aerrow said, his green eyes locking straight with hers. “Are you okay?” he pressed calmly. Piper rose up into a sitting position on the bed’s side very slowly, as though her body were wracked with aches, even though it were physically just burning like with a fever.

“No; Aerrow, I’m not okay,” Piper replied, just looking him in the eye out of the corner of her own, the stray bedsheet wrapped almost fearfully around her.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.

Piper simply responded, “I was asleep and, _Smaug_ was there. But it wasn’t a dream, I _felt_ him coming into my mind; he was _real_.” There was a careful pause before Aerrow spoke, looking surprised.

“How?” he asked it very gently and carefully.

“He used the bond,” (as Piper had come to call it) she said truthfully, for she’d felt that that tether-line was what Smaug had crawled into her mind across from afar.

“What did he do?” Aerrow asked carefully.

“He _attacked_ me with his flames,” Piper remembered; her voice very soft, as though she were heavily tired and drained. “And I _felt_ the pain, for real.” The half-phantom memory of the extreme pain and agony that Smaug’s mental flames had burned the inside of her head with, came back over Piper in that moment; suddenly making her feel terrified of falling back into that dream and feeling those flames again. Aerrow could only look her in the face with concern at her distress that was quite unlike his best friend, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

* * *

Smaug’s mind stirred where he slept on his small but growing hoard of crystals and gold; his eyes fluttering beneath their lids, with his mind having been forced to withdraw from Piper’s when she’d woken back up due to outside interference. He was in a _very_ good mood, with the suffering he had just inflicted upon Piper to punish her behaviour at the valley-area earlier.

And if she thought that this was the last of it, then she was _sorely_ mistaken, now that Smaug knew how to get into her mind that way along the bond and stretch his mental capabilities against hers. He was just getting started, he intended to keep coming back to Piper’s mind that way night after night, until either she finally broke under her torment and changed her response to Smaug from at the valley-lands; or until the foolish worm drove herself insane with her constant defiance, and became too broken to offer up any resistance against anything; whichever one took quicker.

Even in his half-asleep, half-awake state lying amongst his treasure hoard, a dark grin curled across Smaug’s peaceful reptilian face at the thoughts of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone is wondering; yes, Domiwick’s alternate fate seen in this chapter means that the events of ‘Dark Waters’ with the whole Farside-monster incident, don’t happen in this universe.


	6. Learning Control

Piper squinted hard against the sunlight beating down on her, as she and the guys descended the _Condor_ ’s ramp onto the terra’s plain, soft ground. Ever since that first night, four days ago now, when Smaug had come into her mind along the bond; almost every time Piper had gone to sleep, it had only been to see the dragon-monster in the dark, before he sent fire rushing from his jaws upon her to torture and agonise her inside her own head again. As a result, Piper had been sleeping as little as possible since then, and it was seriously starting to take a toll on her; both her body and her brain felt like half-numb jelly, and baggy dark circles formed under her eyes. Piper had tried using sleeping crystals and firewall stones to get a peaceful night’s sleep without Smaug’s fire-breath burning the inside of her mind, but to no avail – the familiar molten flames came rushing at her every time she drifted out of consciousness.

That was actually part of the reason why the Storm Hawks were here on Terra Agora, home to one of the top and most diverse market-towns in the Atmos besides Terra Saharr; looking for a very old one-of-a-kind scroll that an ancient-antiques store here was said to have. Piper had given up on trying to find out more about Smaug from dragon-archaeology or the Forbidden City’s history a while ago now, having found nothing about him, and had started looking at _sketchier sources_ than what she’d consider reliable.

As the squadron left their ship, and strode into the lightly-crowded market-town’s streets lined with stalls and shops of many varieties, Aerrow for the most part stayed close to Piper’s side, like he were concerned she might fall over at any moment. He’d been like this for the past few days now as Piper had started getting less and less rest thanks to Smaug, and there was nothing Aerrow could do about it – though he intended to change that.

The Storm Hawks started looking around through the busy streets for the shop they were looking for. Piper grinned as she looked in at one small shop’s display windows and was sure she’d quickly found it; the display before her eyes was lined with various trinkets and preserved brown papers, some of which she was sure could be antiques of the Achaios Dynasty. Piper looked back over her shoulder to where the guys were just eight feet away across the street, asking at a market-stall, and considered calling them over for a moment, but then went in anyway – after all, they were just out there if she needed to call them.

A tiny bell above the door rang as Piper stepped into the dusty but rather homey-smelling junkshop. The skinny little old man at the counter just lifted his small grey eyes from the magazine he was reading to regard her.

“Excuse me, I’m looking for Birch and Sparrow’s,” Piper said, smiling, to the old shopkeeper. “Is this it?” As he regarded her, the old man looked as if he had just seen someone from his own past or out of a photograph, but that couldn’t be right, Piper thought. He put his magazine down without looking – or he tried to, with his hand hovering a few inches too far past the counter’s edge before releasing the magazine to drop straight to the floor.

“I’m afraid it isn’t, young miss, but we do have many more relics and antiques here if you want to take a look,” the man said in a slightly-heavy voice, stretching out a skinny hand to gesture around the shop. His long grey, eye-matching beard hung down to just touch the wooden counter as he stood up from his stool. “We have many a one-of-a-kind here; from blueprints of the first ever sky-rides to even an original scroll of the Hoth Dynasty!” He pointed a bony finger past Piper towards one of the great clutter lining the store’s four walls.

Piper winced a little apologetically as she turned back to the man two-thirds her height, sure that this was not the right place and that she wouldn’t find anything better here. “Um, thanks, but it’s a _very specific_ thing I’m looking for,” she said; Piper’s mind was too lethargic from lack of sleep to even notice her own rudeness. But the little old man didn’t seem to be taking no for an answer, for as soon as Piper turned to leave, he was half-rushing out from behind the counter, and following close behind her as he continued pleading insistently.

“Aw, come now, girl,” the old man half-pleaded, half-insisted vehemently with her as she was crossing the store space. Piper didn’t even register how his gangly figure seemed to be surprisingly good on his feet without a walking stick. “You can’t trust those scamming louts out there to give you a comfortable bedsheet from Terra Rex, let alone a pre-flight times scroll.” Piper was just pushing open the door to walk back out- “You certainly can’t trust them to sell you a cure for dragons getting’ into your head!”

Piper immediately froze on the spot with the door half-open in front of her, as she processed what the short old man had just said.

“What did you just say?” Piper asked as she whirled her head back round to face the shopkeeper right behind her.

“They’re little cons who you can’t trust with-” the old man began to murmur again slowly with a creased expression on his worn old face.

“No, no, after that!” Piper exclaimed quickly, turning back round to face him. She had to know, how the heck did this man know about that?

“Oh, selling a cure for dragons attacking in your head!” the old man exclaimed as though mentally slapping himself in the head for not processing such a silly thing sooner. Then he locked his eyes with Piper’s as he said seriously: “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it, young miss? That big red oversized lizard, sending hot flames into your head that cause a bad night’s rest?”

Piper gawked as she was aware of what else the man had just said. “H… How do you know about that?!” she exclaimed.

“Oh, people like me have their ways, sweetie,” the grey-bearded man said almost jovially as he turned on his heel and started walking to the back of the shop, almost like a showman about to unveil a grand spectacle. “You don’t hear about any of the youths today, with their portable-radios and their fancy-new Skimmers, who know about this kind of stuff. But you’d be surprised at what you could do-” by now his hand was clutching the curtain that covered the doorway at the back of the shop; and in one swift move, he pulled it away. “-when you know the old-fashioned ways of doin’ things!”

Piper gaped open-mouth in awe at the dimly-lit room beyond the doorway. Many multicoloured varieties of crystals cast glows across the workshop-like space, as did the meditative-looking designs which decorated the backroom’s walls and the carpeting on the floor.

“So, do you wanna learn how to fix that nasty case of dragon-leech, miss?” the shopkeeper asked her, gesturing to the doorway that was right before them. In her right mind, Piper would probably have gone to get the guys over here first, before taking the old shopkeeper’s invite; but she didn’t properly process in her bleary-minded state, so she walked away from the shop’s front door towards the back doorway where the shopkeeper was awaiting her.

Back outside on the street, Aerrow was shaking his head bitterly, as the stall-man he’d been talking to had given him completely contradictory directions for Birch and Sparrow’s than what the last one had given him. Radarr, half-perched on his companion’s shoulder, whined in sympathy at the problem.

“Finn, you already got a Galnus sports sticker-book from here!” Aerrow chided angrily over at the Storm Hawk marksman, who indeed, was browsing through his purchase with a lollipop-sucking Junko stood over his shoulder.

“I hadn’t gotten a fifteen-year-old limited edition!” Finn retorted pleadingly to his leader like a child showing their mother something that they wanted. “Besides, Stork’s not doing anything to find that old brooch-store either!” Finn pointed past Aerrow, to where Stork was sure enough asking a stall-owner about the Vulca-Bat repellent he was purchasing.

Aerrow inwardly groaned as he put his hand to the right side of his head. He knew he wasn’t acting in a perfectly-reasonable sense of mind; with everything that had happened concerning Piper and her bond to Smaug these last few days, and now her severe sleeping problem because of it; suffice to say that Aerrow was getting worried about her.

But the boy Sky Knight didn’t even get to start wondering where Piper had gone to, before the sudden loud boom and flash of something exploding nearby had all the Storm Hawks turning their heads. They looked in time to see a familiar group of four humanoid, green-skinned lizards in armour, go running down the street from where a stall had no doubt blown up, stolen bags of goods in their hands – the _Raptors_.

A determined scowl came over Aerrow’s face as his leader-instincts took over. Wherever Piper was, they couldn’t afford to wait for her with the Raptors getting away so fast. “Storm Hawks, _prepare for battle_!” Aerrow yelled as he took out his twin lightning blades, leading the way as the four youths plus Radarr went charging through the streets after the Raptors.

* * *

Piper hesitantly followed the shopkeeper’s lead into the small, cramped room, the top of her head just fitting under the small doorway as she ducked a little. The room felt unearthly from the inside, to say the least; no natural daylight penetrated in from anywhere but the single doorway that led out into the shop, and the many crystals of multiple varieties – some held in fixtures on the four walls, others strewn on a nearby table against the wall – casting the room in their own dim glow. Though a certain deep-blue seemed to be the dominant shade of light.

“Sit down, please,” the elderly shopkeeper invited her, as he himself sat down across the small room from her, cross-legged in a meditative-looking position on the floor. Piper was hesitant for a moment, but then she sat herself the same way on the floor, a distance of perhaps five feet separating her and the shopkeeper. She had meditated with crystals before, finding it was a very effective technique if one wanted to harness the right crystals perfectly; and she supposed now that her bond with Smaug could be quite similar, assuming it was psychic or energy-based.

“Right then,” the shopkeeper almost growled like a teacher beginning a lecture; snapping Piper’s mind to attention, as he reached over from where he was sitting to pluck two crystals off the nearby table against the wall; “if you wanna learn how to take control from the dragon, for starters you’ll need these.” The elderly man threw the two glowing stones to Piper without warning; she caught them out of the air, each in one hand, and looked at the orange and bright-bluish stones. Piper recognised these particular crystals as tools for calming the mind during meditative techniques.

“Now, let’s begin.” A second later, the man had his eyes peacefully closed, and his spine was straight whilst his hands rested on either crossed-legged knee. It was as if a universal peace had just descended over the room, giving a pleasant, silent feel in the very air to Piper’s senses. With the same delicate grace as she knew from when she’d practiced meditation herself, Piper mimicked the shopkeeper’s pose, but with two crystals in either raised hand; letting her thoughts calm.

“Let go of all thoughts and impulsions,” the shopkeeper’s voice instructed Piper soothingly, seeming like it were calling out to her comfortingly from the void behind her closed eyelids. “Let yourself drift away into a place of calm…” Part of Piper was surprised at how quickly she was half-drawn, half-navigating herself, into such a peaceful state and place. It was almost hypnotic; the last time she’d practiced crystal-meditation, it had taken nearly half an hour to reach this state.

“ _Now_ ,” the shopkeeper’s voice began, emphatic but retaining its gentle tone; “find the tethering line that hangs between yourself and the dragon.” Piper in her mind searched around the solitary peacefulness, but it was as if she couldn’t see what she didn’t know to be looking for. As though sensing her situation: “Imagine that there is a rope, hanging between you and the dragon, and in the centre of it there is something glowing on its surface.”

Piper did just that, and as the image formed in her mind, she found the rope in question very fast inside her mind – it was a peripheral line hanging through an endless oblivion between herself and _something else_ ; she felt like she were an ant-sized thing crawling forward along the line. It was something that felt different to anything of the mind that was purely mental, this line was something that had a taste of _physicality_ to it.

“ _Have you found it_?” the shopkeeper’s voice just echoed through to reach her.

“Yes,” Piper’s lips made the reply automatically as her consciousness was elsewhere at this time.

“ _Good_ ,” the shopkeeper’s voice murmured to Piper through the solace. “ _Now, peer along it to the other end_.”

Something made Piper, in her head, hesitant to go on; some sense of fear of the phantom-beast she could just get a peripheral impression of, that existed on the other end of the line. But Piper re-found the calmness and will within herself to go drifting through, down into that dark hole…

And in an instant, Piper was falling, or flying, faster than she could comprehend along a long, speeding tunnel of twisting light and magic; raw energies washing against her mental being from all around her and making her feel so strange, so _alive_. Piper had no comprehension of how long this lasted, before her consciousness was propelled out to the other end…

_And Piper was seeing through Smaug’s eyes, hidden within his head, as he was flying on his wings through the wild, unoccupied skies towards his destination._

_Smaug’s head was filled with thoughts of violence and ruin as he flew onward, southwest towards Terra Agora; the allure and desire for the precious gold, silver and crystals he knew to be flowing through that place fuelling him onward, as did his desire to see the miserable mortal vermin of the terra exterminated beneath him, like clearing out an infestation! Th-_

_Smaug’s eyes bulged in his head as he was suddenly aware of another presence inside him, his consciousness brushing an edge. As he started probing around for any evidence of what he was sure he’d felt, Piper immediately went shooting away from Smaug’s mind back along the tunnel she’d come._

“NO!” Piper shot back into her body, and out of the blurring state of peacefulness with a cry of distress. Instantly, she was back in the dim room, with the shopkeeper sitting opposite her. There was no soothing peace any longer. Terror gripped Piper at what she had just seen along the bond when she had gone into Smaug’s mind, and the knowledge that came with it, though the cross-legged shopkeeper remained calm as could be.

“Smaug- the dragon… _he’s coming here!_ ” Piper gasped out with horror, her amber eyes wide.

“Hmmm… I see, miss,” the shopkeeper murmured in interest, stroking his beard; he seemed to have genuinely not been expecting this, but he remained disturbingly unshaken by the fact. Piper was already getting onto her feet as her mind suddenly felt very sharp.

“I’ve got to warn everyone!” Piper exclaimed desperately, just about to cross the room in a couple big, fast strides when the shopkeeper said:

“If you want to learn to take control from that dragon, missy, then I suggest you stay here to learn a little more from there.” His cutting voice stopped Piper at the doorway, and had the girl turning her desperate eyes back to him. “If not, then you can leave yourself, but you’ll be running and have that dragon hounding you forever!”

“But that dragon is-” Piper began to protest frantically-

“- _will not_ , I think, be here for another hour,” the shopkeeper cut in ever calmly. “That leaves you plenty of time to learn how to actually _fight_ against this creature.” As though just to drive the point home whilst Piper chewed her lip in indecision, the shopkeeper added: “You won’t be able to save many lives from the dragon when it reaches this terra if you don’t.”

One (or several) part(s) of Piper’s mind were screaming for her to warn the people and start getting them off this terra immediately, another was affected by the old man’s words, and the logical argument he’d given. He’d said that she wouldn’t be able to save all the people here if she didn’t learn to fight the dragon, and on remembering seeing Smaug before, Piper believed the old man. Additionally, Piper remembered the sleeplessness, the brief lapses into unconsciousness without rest as Smaug tormented her with fire in her unconscious mind; she knew if that kept up, then she’d soon fall into a coma if not die of exhaustion, and then there’d be no-one to help stop Smaug. At least this way, she had a real _chance_ of learning ways to fight off the indestructible-scaled dragon. Piper’s mind was made up all within a total of fifteen seconds, as she turned her eyes back to the old shopkeeper, determined.

“So what do we learn next?” she asked him levelly in a serious voice. The shopkeeper motioned for Piper to sit back down in her same spot as before; which she did, her eyes locking with the old man’s.

“I’m going to teach you how to do this thing on your own,” the shopkeeper told her calmly. “How to tap into and harness the well of power that lies on the line between you and the dragon, _at your will_ ; so that you can use it against him as he’s been using the link against you.”

It was a long, gruelling task with no crystals used nor the same subliminal voice as before. The shopkeeper instructed Piper in mentally disciplining herself, learning to not just go to a peaceful place in her mind but to actually manipulate her thoughts; bend and rule the more impulsive feelings that stopped her from achieving such a state as this consistently, become master of herself in her head. As the course progressed, Piper even thought she felt the exhaustion of sleep deprivation she’d half-forgotten about, easing and rejuvenating away from her.

At first, Piper had had quite a bit of trouble, as her fear of Smaug had stopped her, but then they’d quickly gotten past that barrier and were only making continuous progress from there. Piper soon found that she was no longer going to a peaceful mental place in order to find the line of the bond; she was growing more consciously aware in her fully-awake hours, of the tether leading from her to the dragon-monster on the other end. It was soon only a case of deep, concentrated thought rather than meditation; that Piper needed in order to reach it.

Piper wasn’t aware of how much time had gone by, when they’d reached the end of their lesson, and Piper could now fully feel the connection inside of her. It was like an awareness of something in one’s head that one had initially learned to block off and bury in the recesses of their mind, but now had learned to instead constantly think of freely, with utter mastery. Piper was slowly opening her eyes, to see the shopkeeper’s anticipating little grey ones right before her.

“Can you feel it, within you?” he asked her gently. Piper simply nodded her head with a smile to mean a truthful yes. The little old man beamed like a proud, successful teacher, his eyes in that second seeming so much kinder than any stranger that Piper had only known for much less than a day.

But it wasn’t a moment later that the muffled but clear sound of a horn blaring outside, could be heard by Piper and the shopkeeper in the small backroom, causing them to both snap their gazes upward as though they could see what was happening outside.

A watchman blew the massive alarm horn hard at his tower post overlooking Terra Agora, the honk of dread being heard across the entire market-town as people all turned their gazes in shock. Another watchman at his post’s telescopic lens, saw the same thing that his comrade had spotted out amongst the dark, grey-clouded sky; and a second later, he too was blowing his alarm horn as loud as he possibly could.

On the outskirts of the town; Aerrow, and the Raptors’ leader Repton, were just in the middle of a duel with their energy-weapons, their eyes locked over the clashing glows of their blades; when the alarm sound caught the attention of them both and drew their gazes. In the moment that Repton realised that his enemy was distracted staring off, the dark-skinned lizard took the red-haired Sky Knight down with a sweeping kick. And as Aerrow looked up, Repton immediately bolted for where the Raptors’ sky-rides were parked on the rocky hill, his three fellow Raptors following him.

Finn and Junko were over at Aerrow’s side in less than five seconds, helping him to his feet. But the Storm Hawks’ attention was more on the blaring alarms overhead than the Raptors’ immediate getaway, as they all looked up at the nearest watchtower.

“ _DRAGON_!” one of the watchmen yelled out loud as his vocal chords would allow, into a smaller megaphone that projected his voice like an alarm to be heard by the entire terra. Instantly, people in the streets started panicking and running, screaming, as they knew what was coming; pushing and shoving as though they had any hope of hiding or getting away in time.

Only a few seconds into the panic, a howling noise like that of a hurricane came tearing down upon Terra Agora from the northeast. A powerful and uncharacteristically-hot wind beat down over the rocky hills where the Storm Hawks stood, causing them to shield their faces against the force.

Piper was emerging from the doorway of the junk shop she’d entered, with the shopkeeper nowhere in sight; her eyes were looking around quickly but determined, as people cried and quailed in fear.

Yells and points of ‘oh, look,’ ‘it’s there!’ in terror, brought Piper’s eyes snapping upwards to above the stalls and shops – to see a very large-seeming and familiar silhouette become visible through the thick grey clouds for just a moment, vanishing again as it slinked eerily smoothly further down. The sight of that cruel, serpentine shadow instantly sent a shiver running down Piper’s spine; right before she felt the same familiar buzz building in the air all around her, as she’d felt back in the rocky-valleys when she’d first encountered Smaug. It was all the confirmation she needed besides what her own eyes saw, to know that Smaug was here.

Though she was still terrified, and honestly didn’t yet know what it was she was going to do, somehow, Piper felt more calm and confident than she had the last time she’d seen that dragon-monster. She didn’t know exactly what it was, but she knew that she was going to make a stand against this beast.

Elsewhere; Aerrow, Radarr, Finn and Junko had all stared wide-eyed as they too had glimpsed Smaug coming in from among the clouds. And instantly, Aerrow was ordering everyone and they went sprinting off fast, straight towards the market-town down below. There were hundreds of innocent people down there, and they already knew that Smaug wouldn’t think twice about hurting and murdering them for no reason.

In the long, dreadful moments that followed on Terra Agora, fingers continued to point and voices continued to scream and quail at the doom that had come; as the dragon-monster’s silhouette continued reappearing in glimpses above the market-town through the thick grey clouds, becoming more prominent every time as the flying creature seemed to be slowly moving in for the kill and bringing its taunting-games to a close.

Piper stood calm in the street amongst the fleeing people, her fists clenched at her sides; she was waiting for the dragon to come, as her narrowed amber eyes never left the skies and the draconic shadow flying above. Then, the screams of panic through the streets seemed to reach a sharp crescendo, as the dragon’s huge shadow pulled fully away from the clouds, like a bird of prey swooping down upon its helpless catch. The monster’s massive wings held it in the air as it came bearing straight down upon the town.

Piper narrowed her eyes harder as Smaug’s huge form came swooping in ever lower over the town, the light of his fire already shining piercingly from within his belly. The roaring flames came rushing out ahead of the beast’s jaws as he flew above the market-town’s edge, ready to cut through and eat up everything in his path…

Piper threw out her arms with a cry as the fire came rushing down ahead of her…

_BWOOM!_

And with a great surge of pulled power accompanied by the noise of a thunderclap, a staggeringly great force was propelled ahead of Piper through the air across the town, meeting with and snuffing out the flames that had just been about to touch and burn the first buildings.

Smaug, overhead, instantly cut off the flow of his flames when his fire was extinguished before hitting the town; he immediately sensed the power in the force, which related to something that connected to him.

Piper didn’t have a moment to gape in awe at what she had just done, before Smaug was roaring in fury overhead, bringing her gaze snapping up to where he was flying. Smaug twisted in the air and tried to unleash another blaze of fire upon the town. Once again, Piper threw out her arms and, tapping into the deep well of power she was pulling along from the bond; she sent another magical shockwave out from her hands that intercepted and snuffed out the flames, before they could do more than sear the nearest several rooftops.

Smaug’s blazing gaze snapped down to where he had felt that second pulse come from, and instantly he saw _her_ there in the street, standing against him as though she could hope to defeat him. Smaug unleashed another shattering roar, which Piper could clearly feel in her bones was this time being directed at her. The dragon was coming low enough in the air for his hind-claws to start grazing down the small buildings’ rooftops beneath him; it sent ruin and rubble raining deadly down on the people in the streets, as he flew straight towards the specific street where Piper was.

Piper gave out a defiant, challenging cry as she threw out a hand directly in front of her, sending out another invisible blast which hit Smaug dead in the front; propelling him upwards from the market-town mid-flight. As Smaug passed right over the street, he roared in rage and tried to snap his jaws down on his long neck towards Piper, only getting his head hit into the top of one of the buildings around her.

Her feet remaining rooted to the spot, Piper’s eyes followed the sound of where Smaug was flying beyond her sight; until the huge dragon suddenly came back into view, flying low over the town not far from her. Smaug opened his jaws to unleash another stream of molten flames, intending for the wind to spread and carry the fire out in multiple directions around him; like napalm on the air. But Piper drew just a little bit further and harder on the well of power again, clapping her hands together in front of her, to send out a shockwave that dissipated the flames over the town.

Smaug saw this from where he was flying, and he snarled in fury towards Piper as he pieced together, from the way he could feel the power of the bond being drawn away towards the other end, what Piper was doing. But Piper met the dragon’s fiery gaze with a scathing yet determined scowl of her own, as Smaug twisted and made straight towards where she was; seemingly about to try snatching her up or cutting her down with his hind-claws.

Piper just tensed herself without backing down from the incoming monster for a moment. Then, with grace so fast that Smaug barely managed to comprehend it; as Piper pulled at what must have been her fullest yet from the thread of power connecting them, the girl leapt up off the ground. And, in mid-air, she sent a focused blast of visible-glowing energy firing from her two hands with a throwing motion, straight for the dragon overhead. It came so fast that Smaug couldn’t manoeuvre in time to avoid the projectile; it hit the single clear-coloured scale on his armoured chest head-on…

_Instantly, a vision flashed before Piper and Smaug’s minds._

_Piper saw Smaug diving from the cold night skies, a light-dotted island glowing on the lake ahead. His wings snapped out to catch him a second before he could touch the lake water, bringing him gliding straight towards the wooden town. Then with a deep breath as his chest glowed bright, Smaug unleashed a long torrent of burning flames upon the lake’s town, bathing the buildings below him in fire and destruction as he passed overhead…_

_Then; Piper saw a man, with a last roaring grunt, let loose the giant arrow he’d been holding back taut on the bowstring. She saw the arrow, a large black projectile with a single shining clear gem embedded on its head, whistle through the smoke-filled air towards Smaug’s pouncing form- THUNK! And bury itself deep through a single empty gap on his chest’s scales!_

Piper staggered and groaned on the spot, as she was brought back to her body in a flash. Smaug, still flying the air, snarled and shook his head on his neck, as he just regained his flight control in time and went soaring over Piper’s head again.

Circling above the town, Smaug whirled his gaze, blazing even brighter with his utter fury, straight on Piper; who was staggering as she recovered in the street below. Piper in turn caught Smaug’s fiery gaze with her own amber one, as the dragon-monster came circling rapidly to come in upon her again.

Readjusting her posture, Piper noted that she was beginning to feel weak as she kept tapping into and pulling on the bond’s power more, like she was getting closer to the limit. _Just one more_ , she mentally urged, as Smaug completed his circle, flying towards her. She pulled hard with her desperation on the thread of power for one more powerful boost…

Smaug was crossing the distance from one side of the market-town to her in a matter of seconds…

 _Come on_ … Piper pulled harder…

Smaug roared furiously as he reached out his hind-claws to pluck Piper up off the street…

_Yes!_

Piper threw out her hands in front of her, with more force of power in them than she had before; and instantly, she unleashed a thick, mighty barrier of power from her body, to go rippling out in all directions. Smaug didn’t have the time to try and stop himself in the air before the wall of immense power crashed into him hard. The dragon was propelled backwards on the shockwave like a bug flattened against a moving vehicle’s windshield; and as the ripple continued radiating outward, Smaug was taken further and further away on it into the grey sky… and further yet, out of sight. It would be well over thirty miles from Terra Agora before the shockwave would have dissipated enough for Smaug to resist the force of it.

For a moment after the dragon had disappeared, Piper simply stared out to the grey-mottled sky at where she’d sent Smaug packing. She was hardly able to believe what she’d just done, as the euphoria and determination of the magical fight against him wore off. Not even as the stunned silence that had settled over the dozens of people all around her in the street, was rapidly followed by a chorus of rising cheers towards the one who had just sent off the dragon.

* * *

In the matter of minutes after Smaug had been driven off, though the people on Agora had praised and cheered at Piper, who’d clearly stood out in the street as the receptacle of their jubilation; once Aerrow and the other Storm Hawks had arrived to the spectacle, he and Piper had both told everyone to go through with fleeing the terra anyway, in case Smaug tried to fly the way back from however far out Piper’s blast had sent him shooting. All the people had quickly followed through; those who actually lived on Agora packed most of their belongings, and the many carrier ships that were docked on Terra Agora had quickly taken off to the sky. Until the _Condor_ was the last one left, and then that ship was leaving as well.

As Terra Agora was shrinking away behind them, Aerrow finally turned on the bridge to face Piper, no doubt about what she’d done back there.

“Piper, that was incredible!” Aerrow exclaimed at her, very impressed though not overly-childish about it.

“Pfft, it wasn’t _that_ impressive,” Finn pouted near the helm station, more like an attention-jealous child than someone who actually meant it; before Stork kicked him hard in the leg without taking his own eyes off the helm.

“But what was it you did down there?” Aerrow asked Piper, instantly suspecting as he remembered the bond between her and Smaug and noted the complete positive change in her.

“Huh, I learned a new trick,” Piper simply mused lightheartedly. She grasped and turned her hands over each-other, as though she could still see some trace of the power that she had projected out through them. “I certainly won’t have to worry about Smaug stopping me from sleeping anymore!” she said confidently, with a grin in Aerrow’s direction. Aerrow responded by giving her a smile of his own, truly relieved at how Piper seemed to now be a lot better.

* * *

Back down on Terra Agora, one little old man who hadn’t left when everyone else had, sat at his counter at the back of the junkshop, watching the _Condor_ go as it vanished from sight to the sky.

“Joy and _jubilation_!” a nasally yet jolly voice called out from behind the old-seeming shopkeeper’s seat. A second later, three figures who wore similarly strange garments to one-another, emerged from the shadows behind the old man.

“And that, lads, is how you turn one’s weakness to strength,” the old man boasted, though lightheartedly, at his methods’ effectiveness, turning round in his seat to face the two friends that were behind him.

“Hurm, that little lady’s just a girl, how far can we expect _her_ to get before the dragon beats her?” the second figure’s cantankerous voice spurted out in its ever-pessimistic tone, the speaker’s expression looking unimpressed under his dark-grey raven-shaped hood with eyeholes.

“I don’t know, boys, she seems like she really has a chance at overcoming that dragon,” the shopkeeper mused thoughtfully with a look back out to beyond the shop’s display windows, as though the topic were something as simple and lighthearted as the weather. The darker-clothed figure snorted again, still unimpressed.

“And did I ever tell you boys about those little folk in the old times, that that wandering friend of mine always used to put his faith in?” the shopkeeper questioned again.

The pessimistic man groaned miserably as if to protest, _too many times_.

“He be right,” spoke up the nasally-voiced first figure in that melodramatically-tuned, optimistic voice – he was a man with a short purple beard, silver-lined garments and the same raven-shaped hood. “The old grey wizard, and his fellow ageless friends in the Forgotten Realm who taught us, have always said it to be the unlikeliest of folk who make true heroes, have they not?” The optimistic man’s friend still didn’t seem too impressed. “The girl will reach her full potential, and fulfil _her destiny_.”

The shopkeeper gave a private, hopeful smile at his other friend’s words, as he turned his beaming grey gaze back out to the skies beyond his store’s windows.

* * *

To say that Smaug was livid would be an understatement as he flew, utterly seething, through the remote regions back towards his lair.

He’d been furious beyond measure when he'd seen Piper there on Terra Agora, tapping into the very power of the bond between them, utilising the power that he desired to command _against him_. When the girl's final blast had sent him hurtling away, a haze as red as his scales had descended over Smaug's vision, as he'd been propelled away for miles on the magical shockwave to the skies before it had dissipated enough for him to resist. His first move of course had been to immediately fly back to Terra Agora, but it was only to find when he’d gotten there that the last mortal had taken their window of time to scatter and flee with their lives. Smaug had been enraged so much further that not even the sight of the gold and crystal spoils left behind could soothe him, and he had burned and smashed and blasted well over half the empty market-town in his anger.

After venting off his initial fury, Smaug had immediately set about tracking down as many of the scattering mortals in the skies as he could; but they had gotten too far away and scattered too far through the sky for him to be able to pick up their trails.

Now, Smaug came upon the cave mouth of his lair; his tail smashed violently into the side as he crawled his way in, his mood utterly foul at what had happened today. Even the usually-comforting sight of Smaug's precious treasure, gold and crystals piled against the cave walls and across the floor, barely did anything to cool the edges of the fire-breather's anger as he just lied down amongst his hoard, seeking to drift off to slumber and recuperate his energies. Smaug had been just on the verge of a deep unconsciousness behind the scaly red lids of his eyes, when an alien presence had pushed into his mind, making his eyes snap open, alert.

Smaug's reverberating growl bounced bone-chillingly off the cave walls around him as he _felt_ the presence that had wormed and slinked into his mind to sit right at the back, on the edge. The intruding presence had a definite feel of the same magic that Smaug had learned to associate with the crystals of Atmos that he coveted alongside metals; though this power was much more potent, feeling almost as though it had a presence _guiding_ it. Smaug also felt the definite, familiar _tickle_ of a human sorcerer’s being amongst the magical sea; a conjurer no doubt wielding a powerful force that was beyond mortals' foolish comprehension.

"Who is this that dares speak to me, and for what purpose?" Smaug snarled out scathingly to the conjurer in his intimidating voice, speaking both physically and for the one in his head to hear.

" _My humble personal greetings,_ Smaug the Dragon-Dread," a female-sounding voice spoke out into the great fire-drake's head. Smaug found nothing surprising at hearing the speaker use his name, as he had been boasting it proudly to the mortals he destroyed for those whose fleeing lives he spared to pass on. The sorceress's voice was surprisingly high and soft, but with a cold and cruel edge to it (for a _mortal_ voice, at least).

" _Smaug, you speak to Master Cyclonis, Empress of Cyclonia_ ," the female's voice finally introduced herself. Smaug's eyes widened for a moment at the revelation, for he had heard of the Master of Cyclonia and her dark human empire, feared and hated by all the mortals in this realm whom they sought to conquer. Then, a dark chuckle rumbled out past Smaug’s jaws.

"My, so _you_ are the famed enemy of all the peoples of Atmos?" Smaug growled out loud, clear and now _very_ interested, for the female Master Cyclonis to hear. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" Smaug quipped, though his voice had a curtness and didn’t sound enthusiastic.

Right before the voice replied, a half-peripheral ghost of an image flashed across Smaug's vision: the impression of a thin yet lean and dark figure that radiated a surprisingly regard-worthy amount of power, standing tall and intimidating (for a human at least) and bathed in unearthly violet.

" _I'm sure you’re aware that you've earned quite the reputation around Atmos in the last month_ ," the voice of Cyclonis spoke calm, composed and sharp. " _Five terras massacred and devastated over as many weeks, fifty manned ships lost to the Wastelands; all by a fire-breathing dragon_ …" she trailed off somewhat casually in her almost-teasing and –musing tone. In the moment after Cyclonis' voice had trailed off, Smaug suddenly felt the girl’s intriguingly-piercing attention on him, multiply tenfold in his head.

" _It's very impressive_ ," she complimented calmly. " _So I speak to you with a proposition. I’ve had my eyes and ears following your trail of destruction for a while now; and I'm quite aware of your_ liking _for precious materials_." Smaug immediately became guarded and angry at the thought that his treasure was threatened by someone who would seek to take it from him. " _Ally yourself with Cyclonia, utilise and direct your great might and prowess in our favour to crush all our enemies. And in return, any and all the precious metals, gems and crystals imaginable, in all of Atmos; that Cyclonia has no use for – will be yours_."

In the brief moment after Master Cyclonis had stated her offer, after only a brief pause; Smaug was sneering disdainfully, and communicating it across to the empress in his head.

"You seek to buy a hunter's services by paying him slaughtered prey?" Smaug pointed out, disdain practically _dripping_ on his growling, articulated voice. Then in an utterly-demeaning tone as though he were addressing a retarded child, he sarcastically added: "Now, _where lies the problem here..._?"

" _I don't remember saying Cyclonia would be handing you the spoils_ ," Cyclonis' voice responded just as calmly and confidently as ever. Smaug's fiery eyes immediately widened as he realised just what Master Cyclonis was getting at.

" _Hmmm_ …" Smaug hummed deeply in thought, for the first time seriously considering the empress’s proposition. "You make a very _generous_ offer," he admitted; in a more placating, smooth voice now.

" _I'll be waiting for your response,"_ Cyclonis spoke coolly into Smaug's head with an air of clear finality _. "Think on it_." At her words of parting, Smaug felt the invasive presence of Cyclonis' dark and potent magic pull away out of his mind, withdrawing back to the dark from whence it came; then it was gone. Leaving the great dragon to lie upon his treasure hoard, contemplating the offer that the dark empress had extended for him; his fiery eyes narrowed and roving about the cave walls as he thought.


	7. Council Meeting

Terra Atmosia was a mountaintop of perfectly-lush conditions above the cloudline, best known as the capital of the free Atmos. And that status was reflected in its beautiful-carved and –crafted architecture built across the hilly landscape, which could only be described as that of a kingdom’s capital. Though on this night, it was the location where a meeting of the troubled Sky Knights was occurring at the terra’s Registry Hall, concerning a specific terror plaguing the Atmos that was becoming an increasing problem with time’s passing.

“Order! ORDER!” The Chief Registrar of the Council shouted, banging his large wooden gavel hard on the table to be heard over the Sky Knights at the long table, who’d come from all over Atmos to attend the meeting. “ORDER! QUIET, PLEASE!” Finally, he seemed to have everyone listening, as every Sky Knight went quiet and turned their heads to where the Registrar and the main body of the Council stood at an overlooking podium-table.

“Now,” the Chief Registrar spoke to the whole room, “we are all here to discuss a terrible new menace that has been plaguing Atmos for these past two months; the dragon calling itself _Smaug_.” As mentioned before, Smaug’s name was no secret to Atmos any longer, nor were the fact he could talk, nor the many titles he gave himself. As Aerrow listened from where he was sat all the way at the far end of the table from the Registry, a familiar friend was the first voice to speak up on the topic.

“I have been observing both the Dragon-Dread’s attacks from afar and Cyclonian activity relating to the crisis,” Starling, sat down the table closer to the main podium, spoke up to the Registrar in her eloquent-accented voice. The purple-haired Sky Knight and last of the Interceptors went on: “As far as I can tell, right now, Smaug holds no allegiance to anyone but himself.” Her green eyes travelled around the table, catching everyone’s gazes. “But if he should side with Cyclonia…”

Starling didn’t need to finish the sentence as fearful murmurs roused around the table; everyone dreaded the terrible effect that Master Cyclonis could use such a powerful creature to.

“Well, if this creature is capable of speech, then has anyone communicated with it to learn what it wants?” the Sky Knight of Terra Amazonia questioned.

“Aye,” growled out Tritonn of the Neck Deeps – a blue-skinned, amphibious humanoid Aquanosian with a seafaring accent – in response. He was one of more than a few bandaged Sky Knights at the table who looked like they were recovering from a scrape in a war zone. “I and me squadron were there at Terra Doralos, saw that murdering beast burn and tear the terra apart with everyone on it! He were laughing all the while, boasting he was Smaug the Mighty to the people below, as he _exterminated_ them screaming!” Tritonn spat out the last half of the sentence bitterly, with clear disgust in his voice at what he had seen the creature do.

“We all know what it is Smaug is after from everyplace he attacks,” Aerrow spoke up from at the end of the table to get everyone’s attention. Besides the fact that it was pretty clear what Smaug was taking from the terras and ships he attacked, Piper had told him what she’d heard in Smaug’s thoughts when he’d been coming for Terra Agora. “ _Treasure_. And _lots of it_. Gold, silver, rare crystals, anything precious.”

There was a very audible scoff from Harrier, the Sky Knight of Terra Rex sat further up the table, as he looked demeaningly at the Sky Knight of the Storm Hawks. “A talking dragon that plunders the Atmos for gold?!” he exclaimed derisively in his high voice, with a similar accent to Starling’s but certainly far less eloquent. “Why, I have never heard such silliness, even from a _Storm Hawk_!”

“If you have any better explanation for why this dragon has been taking crystals and gold alone from everywhere it attacks yet leaves everything else to burn, I’m sure we’d all be happy to hear it, Harrier!” Starling jabbed from where she sat directly opposite the portly Rex Guardian, for which Aerrow was grateful. That stirred up another round of rising, argumentative murmurs around the table, before the Chief Registrar quietened it again with another very loud banging of his gavel.

“ORDER!”

The Chief Registrar then turned his full attention onto Aerrow. “Now, Aerrow of the Storm Hawks, you’ve told us that there is one in your squadron who has successfully fought Smaug off from an inhabited terra?” All eyes at the table immediately turned straight onto Aerrow, shocked whispers swiftly passing.

“It’s true,” Aerrow confirmed in a very serious and careful tone. “Piper, our squadron crystal-mage and tactician, defended Terra Agora against Smaug two days ago; she used a meditational art with crystals to deflect all of Smaug’s attacks and then blast him away until everyone had evacuated.”

Another round of murmurs, interested and excited, passed around the table at this comment. Aerrow locked eyes with Starling across the table, the only one who wasn’t cheering, though she did look impressed with a smile crossing her face.

“Where’d the girl learn that trick from, eh?” Suzy Lu of Terra Blizzaris piped up, looking quite impressed herself. For a moment, Aerrow nearly mentally stumbled over himself at how to answer that, before he found it.

“From a crystal-mage on Terra Agora, a little while before Smaug came,” Aerrow answered. Across the table, Harrier scoffed snootily as though such a thing were nonsense. “We don’t know where the mage who taught her it is now,” Aerrow continued, “we’ve looked for him but haven’t been able to find him anywhere since the incident. Also, Smaug has been after Piper for a while now since learning of her power firsthand.”

Aerrow avoided telling the Sky Knight Council about Piper and Smaug’s connection, loath as he was to intentionally withhold the truth from them. He’d privately told Starling the full story about Piper’s bond before the meeting had started, but he wasn’t sure it would go down too well with every Sky Knight, that Piper had a connection to Smaug that he sought to gain cosmic power from.

“If only the girl knows how to use this power against Smaug, then there be little hope for the rest of us of learnin’ it,” Tritonn growled grimly at Aerrow’s statement. Actually, Piper was now spending a lot of time practicing with the techniques she’d learned on Terra Agora; and her dream-attacks by Smaug and sleep deprivation had thankfully stopped since she’d started harnessing the power herself. Though her studies into her new power hadn’t revealed any more abilities, nor that it could do much more than make a water-bottle tremble on its own without Smaug near her.

“Then what else is there to do to fight off this dragon’s menace?” Harrier questioned.

“We can have a trap set for the beast, shoot it down with as many energy cannons and sky-rides as we can muster!” the burly Sky Knight of Edmontonia exclaimed with a determined fist, as though that hadn’t already been tried.

“That’s already failed against Smaug,” Starling replied. “The dragon’s hide has proven impenetrable, every crystal and energy weapon known to Atmos is _completely useless_ against Smaug’s natural armour. Smaug has outsmarted several attempts to trick him into traps, and he’s beaten multiple attempts to bring him down with chains, nets and crushing force through his sheer strength.”

“I haven’t heard of any indestructible plating protecting his eyes, or the gums inside of his foul jaws!” Harrier commented ever-derisively. That was possibly the first good pointer at this meeting, and certainly one of the few Aerrow had observed in ever, to come out of the Rex Sky Knight’s mouth. More optimistic murmurs rose all around the table from one end to the other.

“ _That_ may well be worth a shot,” Starling commented aloud with a grin. Then it fell again as she added: “However, I have seen the way this monstrous killer fights and thinks. He’ll make it difficult to get in a single shot that can do enough damage.” A short chorus of more pessimistic murmurs followed.

The Sky Knight of Terra Geogray – a lanky, dark-skinned human man with long hair braided into a ponytail – rose and spoke up next, pointing to a map he had spread out on the table. “In the first few weeks that these incidents started happening, Smaug’s attacks were taking place within a localised radius of over two-hundred miles, before increasingly spreading out as he attacked further and further out terras and ships. So far, seven terras have been attacked by the beast, and he’s believed to be responsible for eighty shipwrecks and disappearances.”

“Your point being, mate?” Blister of the Third Degree Burners asked.

“If Smaug originated within the 200-mile area where the dragon was first sighted,” the Geogray Sky Knight explained, “then he may well have a lair, or at least an enclosed area of hiding and sleeping places there, for storing his plundered valuables.”

“We can’t try cornering Smaug with this information, or even try running him out without there being a risk he’ll retaliate violently,” Starling lamented. However, she then roused with a slowly-spreading grin: “But, there are still a lot of inhabited terras around those quadrants of Atmos, including several terra communities that have been completely ignored by Smaug.”

“We may well be able to send forces in to set up posts and weapons underground, take the beast by surprise!” another Sky Knight spoke up. But the excited chorus of murmurs hadn’t even had the chance to properly rise again, before the sound of the large wooden doors creaking as they were pushed open, cut through the hall like a knife, and had every head turning to see the new arrival.

Aerrow and everyone else at the table all saw a short man in cheap garments, with a long grey beard that matched his small eyes hanging down in front of his chest, walk in.

“Greetings, Sky Knights,” the little old man spoke in his slightly gruff-sounding, but calm and wise, accented voice.

“May we ask who you are, sir?” the Chief Registrar said from all the way at the other end of the chamber.

“Who I am does not matter,” the man said lightly, but Aerrow detected a sense of foreboding in his voice. “What matters is, that I have heard you are considering trying to sneak attempts against the Dragon-Dread into the settlements within the parts where he flies. I’d like to give you some words about this course of action before you get your heads too far into it.”

“What of it…?” Aerrow asked, though he had a feeling he knew the answer.

“Who in Atmos is this?!” Harrier exclaimed indignantly.

“I cannot reveal much of what it is I know, nor how I know it; in fact I am breaking many of the rules of my friends simply by coming here to speak with you,” the little old man explained, loud and clear for the whole Sky Knight Council to hear. As he lifted his piercing grey gaze, every set of eyes at the long table in front of him was held, implored to listen; though none more so than Aerrow, who was nearest the old man.

“That being said… Smaug the Serpent of Dread, the Dragon of Erebor was one of the most infamous and terrible dragons that the Free Peoples of his time ever knew. He is brilliantly cunning, he is _viciously remorseless_. And if he knows those who live under the threat of his wrath conspire against him, he will not hesitate to _EXTERMINATE_ every living soul of them!”

As the little old man’s words passed over the whole Sky Knight Council, he turned on his heel and began walking back out the way he’d come in, never looking back.

“Wait!” Aerrow called out, leaping up from his seat as he moved to try and stop the man; who was already disappearing through the wooden doors. How did he know what he did about Smaug?! “Who are you?”

Aerrow ran out through the doors, only to be greeted by an unoccupied hall outside the council chamber – either that man was faster than he let on, or he had just disappeared like in a magic act. Leaving the Sky Knight of the Storm Hawks, and the other Sky Knights from all over Atmos in the Council chamber behind him, to seriously consider the mysterious stunt-pulling man’s words to them.


	8. Reaching the Stratosphere

“ _Uh… Master Cyclonis_ ,” the voice of the Cyclonian commander Ravess answered the call over the radio with trepidation.

“So, you’ve been using my platform for sneak attacks,” the thin yet imposing Master of Cyclonia, dressed in a long dark cloak; pointed coldly, in that high yet intimidating voice that commanded immediate respect, to her subordinate. She stood in her dimly-lit throne room as her multiple-limbed, crystal-experimenting contraption worked in front of her.

“ _Indeed, Master_ ,” Ravess’ voice answered carefully. “ _With the Storm Hawks out of the way_ -”

“The Storm Hawks had no clue we were up there until you started taking potshots at them,” the black-haired girl cut off her subordinate scathingly; her purple eyes like the glow cast across her throne room, were narrowed with her reprimand. The element of surprise was something she’d wanted to maintain, before Ravess had thrown it away for her reckless little games.

“ _But Master, it’s the perfect opportunity_ -” Ravess carefully tried to defend her actions.

“ _This project_ ,” Master Cyclonis’ voice cut in harsh and threatening, sounding like a sibilant hiss in that moment; “is all the opportunity we need. Focus on completing it, or I’ll start taking potshots at _you_.”

Cyclonis cut off the transmission with that last warning, confident that her commander wouldn’t be playing any further childish games that could threaten their plans. It wasn’t two seconds after she’d hung up, that a deep, growling voice emanated from a glowing purple crystal resting on the dais just a little way along from the radio, filling the room.

“ _I hope I’m not interrupting, but I couldn’t help overhearing your little reprimand_ ,” the voice of Smaug spoke out loud in the room.

“Not at all, Smaug,” Cyclonis replied softly as she turned to the crystal, with a cold smile upon her face; the kind that was worn by a professional-acting diplomat. “What brings you talking to me again?”

“ _Hmm,_ now I wonder how you could have guessed I was here to chat,” Smaug murmured smoothly at his location on the other end of the connection; where the great dragon lay upon his treasure hoard in his lair, the sickly-shining gold reflecting the colour of his eyes.

“ _I’ve noticed that Cyclonia has put up a new light in the sky, if I’m not mistaken_ ,” Smaug purred, with a dangerous note in his voice. Cyclonis took a moment to consider her options at the confirmation that Smaug knew about the battle platform in the stratosphere – as she’d feared he inevitably would, it wasn’t impossible for any ship to spot with a basic periscope if they looked hard enough. She thought of denying knowledge that this had anything to do with Cyclonia, but that could make Smaug suspicious – and potentially jeopardise their chances of an alliance, if he found out the truth.

“You are correct,” Cyclonis reluctantly conceded to whisper to the crystal softly, her face remaining deceivingly calm and composed (not that Smaug could see her expression through the crystal as he could hear her voice). “As of now, Cyclonia has reached higher into the upper-atmosphere than anyone in Atmos before us.”

“ _Hmmm, now that_ is _impressive_ ,” Smaug’s voice complimented, though Cyclonis did not like nor trust the dragon’s deceptively-sweet tone at all. “ _Though one does have to be concerned about the obedience and competence of your minions, after that little talk about projects and Storm Hawks I overheard_ …”

“Oh? Then perhaps a _demonstration_.” Cyclonis physically raised an eyebrow at the challenge, though while she may have seemed too-easily baited, she also saw the opportunity to further cement Cyclonia’s current ties with Smaug. “Right now, our platform in the stratosphere is the precursor to a far greater weapon, which can decimate our enemies in an instant,” Cyclonis promised darkly.

Cyclonis further seemed to sense Smaug’s unease on the other end of the crystal, as she added in to the dragon with a hidden sibilant hiss in her words: “I can personally assure you, Smaug, that Cyclonia will not strike against those it considers its allies.”

“ _I’ll hold you to that_ ,” Smaug replied in his growling voice, with something in his tone that was a mix of both paranoia and a warning threat.

* * *

Elsewhere in the Atmos, a young girl was practicing with the power she now had control over; tapping into the well of power that the bond between her and Smaug had. Her eyes were closed as she willed the screws on the _Condor_ ’s hull to tighten where she wanted them to beyond her closed eyelids, while her squadron-mates were working with their hands around her.

For those first several days since the mysterious crystal-mage at the junkshop had taught her to harness and take control of the bond for herself on Terra Agora, Piper had found that while she’s been able to unleash powerful blasts against Smaug in the dragon’s presence, without him near, she’d barely been able to make objects slide an inch at a time across a table. She’d even at one point exerted herself enough to cause a serious nosebleed when she’d been trying to shift a table itself.

But that had changed after an incident a couple weeks ago, when she and the gang had slipped into Cyclonia while it was hosting the Mega Warrior Wrestling Championships. Whilst Finn had had Junko fighting in the ring under a hypnosis crystal’s effect after he’d impersonated a wrestler to get them in, Piper had taken the golden opportunity to do a little recon around Cyclonia; during which she’d not only found her way to Master Cyclonis’ office, but had discovered she’d cracked the theory to developing a matrix for a telepathic crystal. A telepath crystal was a theory, of a crystal with telepathic properties that could be used to build up and harness one’s own mental strength (or, in the wrong hands; bend the minds of others, possibly many at a time across vast distances). Right before Cyclonis had caught both her and Aerrow in her study, she remembered…

_Within a second of sending Master Cyclonis to the floor with a swipe-kick, Piper was already atop her, both of them wrestling their hands furiously as they tried to pin the other down._

_“Shouldn’t leave a paper trail on your desk,” Piper taunted her ‘friend,’ her face right above Cyclonis’ as she grinned. “Now I can make a telepath crystal too!” In the moment that Piper had been distracted bragging for just a second, Cyclonis got a leg-headlock around Piper’s neck, and with a cry and a flash; it was suddenly Cyclonis who had Piper pinned underneath her._

_“You’re not even_ close _to having the skills for something that complex!” Cyclonis hissed down at Piper. Then suddenly, her expression turned curious, her eyes looking calculating as she was clearly puzzling it over; in a way Piper didn’t like one bit. “What use would you even have for a telepath crystal? You’re not the dominating type, and you hardly have any telepathic skills worth harnessing…”_

_“More than you think!” Piper shot back up at her, a second before she landed a painful-sounding punch with a cry; one that sent Cyclonis sliding off of her across the balcony floor._

_“And speaking of skills…” Piper added, getting up, as Cyclonis glared over from where she was on the floor. “…_ you fight like a girl _!”_

_“HNGRRRRR!”_

And after Piper had developed her own telepath crystal from that, she’d found that using it in her own sessions had helped to improve her new power massively. She’d quickly gone from making things slide a few inches, to making Finn’s glass of lemonade levitate out of his hand and spill on his head. (That had admittedly been pretty fun.) But Piper was also aware as she was getting stronger with her power, of _him_ on the other end of the bond also aware of it. Though Smaug fortunately couldn’t find her by it, and though she was no longer as afraid of him as she had been since learning to take control of the bond against him; it was still unnerving for Piper, to know that he was aware every time she used that power.

But Piper was now being brought out of her deep, meditative practice as she heard Aerrow’s voice, increasingly fussed with the work they were currently doing on the _Condor_ – to make the ship ready to fly up to the stratosphere itself, where no-one in Atmos had flown before.

“Radarr, looks like we got another air leak over here!”

In about a second, the bluish-violet animal member of the Storm Hawks was upon the hissing panel several metres ahead, and re-screwing it in place.

“Aerrow, could you relax a little?” Piper pleaded with him softly from where she’d been cross-legged in a meditative pose nearby, turning to face him. “I mean, it’s not like this is the first time Ravess had a sinister plan.” By that she was of course referring to the Cyclonian battle station they’d spotted hovering up in the stratosphere, and were going up there to take down.

“I just want to make sure everything is perfect!” Aerrow insisted. But Piper knew him better than that, and was well aware of what was up with him.

“So she was the first one to the stratosphere, big deal!” she consoled her leader. “You know, there’s still the exosphere, and that’s even higher!” The words of comfort seemed to work; for a moment Aerrow’s green eyes stared off to the wind thoughtfully, then just like that he was back in his body and to his old spirits.

“Uh, you’re right,” he said. “There’ll be plenty of time for exploring the unknown _after_ we take care of Ravess. Are you almost finished?”

“We’re ready,” Piper declared sweetly as she’d finished fixing the last of the panels into place, and stood up.

* * *

From there, after everyone had suited up in the strato-suits they’d developed for this (and after a rather anticlimactic walk during which Stork had run right into a pole), it was a case of strapping in and checking all their systems before they were blasting off… and going up and up ever vertically further with intense G-force, until the _Condor_ was levelling off and sailing smoothly in the stratosphere. It was a truly amazing view to behold; the Storm Hawks could see the whole of the known Atmos sprawled out far below the serene, clear, cloudless heaven on which they were now flying. Piper just _had_ to take pictures, though she lamented that they still weren’t high enough to see what was beyond the Barrier Cliffs that bordered all of the known Atmos.

It was shortly after that that the Storm Hawks were coming upon the Cyclonian battle station, disabling its energy cannons with ease right before they boarded. There were armed guards waiting for them, but that problem quickly went away, when the way Stork’s special strato-suit looked like something out of a B-horror movie at a distance sent them all running, screaming, for the escape pods. But when the squadron stormed the bridge, they were too late to stop Ravess from launching the Cyclonians’ Exopod into orbit all the way up in the exosphere – which was just about the highest anyone in Atmos could possibly hope for anything to go; the very edge of space itself as far as they knew. And that left the Storm Hawks with a deadly Cyclonian satellite-weapon to take down.

“Ravess damaged the crystal matrix,” Piper said as she examined the control panel Ravess had shot before escaping, the whole station rumbling and tilting frighteningly. “This won’t stay up much longer!”

“Fine, who needs it!?” Finn all but squealed.

“We do!” Aerrow insisted. Then, running and pointing up to where the Exopod had been launched to the heavens: “If we’re gonna use this launcher to go after that thing!”

“But the _Condor_ can’t fit on that tiny thing!” Junko exclaimed with one look at the launch pad.

“The _Condor_ ’s not what I had in mind,” Aerrow replied, with an ingenious gleam in his eyes through his helmet’s visor. “We’ll have to work fast!”

It was a long ten minutes of rushed, frantic work on Aerrow’s Skimmer (minus Finn, who seemed just as content as before to slack off on a folding chair and let everyone else do all the work), before they were all beaming at the glorious, gleaming pod of an exosphere-modified Skimmer before them.

Piper calculated that once they launched Aerrow and Radarr in the modified Skimmer to the exosphere, their path would directly intercept the Exopod to take it down, then they’d have a limited window to reenter the normal atmosphere for the _Condor_ to catch them – lest they drift out beyond chance of recovery, to the _point of no return_ as Stork so ominously put it.

Another few minutes later, Aerrow and Radarr were both strapped into the modified Skimmer; the boosters were hissing and whirring very loudly with the massive power that was building for the launch, the Skimmer propped diagonally on the same platform that the Exopod had been launched from.

“59…58…” Junko counted down as, with the twist of a switch, the hatch directly above the Skimmer that the Exopod had launched out of was hissing open. “…57…56…”

THASH! A deadly red ray suddenly pierced explosively through the metal walls as the platform finally seemed ready to collapse.

“ _Threetwoone-zero_!” Finn screeched in a rush before, with the hit of a button, Aerrow and Radarr were blasting off in a twister of red straight up towards the exosphere. At the same time; Piper, Finn, Stork and Junko just barely made it, sprinting through the station with red explosions suddenly going off all around; back onto the _Condor_ and away in time, as the huge metal platform went sinking away towards the Atmos below.

“ _You guys get out okay_?” Aerrow’s voice came in over the radio not two minutes later.

“Barely!” Piper exclaimed in reply. “We’re on our way down. What’s it like up there?”

“ _It’s… kind of hard to explain_ …” Was all Aerrow could say up above, as he was watching the camera that was in the pod with him float weightlessly right in front of his face.

“We’re back to regular atmosphere!” Junko was announcing moments later as the _Condor_ went swooping down to the more familiar air thick with tinted clouds. Finn seemed to be pretty relieved to get his strato-suit’s helmet off his neck.

“Finally, this thing _chivs_!”

“Revert to normal flight mode!” Piper called over as she herself removed her helmet.

“Proceeding to pickup point!” Stork announced at the helm as he took the _Condor_ whooshing faster than usual – the new speed thanks in no small part to the stratosphere modifications – straight for the very edge of the known skies near the Barrier Cliffs, where Piper had calculated Aerrow would come down.

“ _We can see Ravess’ little toy_!” Aerrow’s voice was already announcing over the radio. But then he followed, much to Piper’s stress, with: “ _I think we’re gonna miss… By a couple leagues_ …!”

“But- that’s impossible,” she exclaimed. “Unless I…” A swift relook at the parchments with her calculations, spread on the bridge’s main table, instantly confirmed what she feared, and the pit of dread opened up full in her stomach. “Oh, no. I miscalculated!”

Finn just had to get one brief vocalisation of a snigger out before he remembered the current situation. “I mean… pretend I didn’t say that!”

“I’ve never dealt with distances like this before, alright?!” Piper snapped as she whirled around to face the guys, positively distraught. “Oh, it must have been a rounding error in the eleventh decimal place,” she murmured despairingly as she looked back at the calculations. “How could I have missed that?!”

“ _It’s okay, Piper, we’ll think of something_!” Aerrow’s voice called in over the radio to assure her.

“Yeah, we all will,” Finn backed up confidently, suddenly right by Piper at her side, along with both of the other guys. That certainly worked to boost Piper’s spirits again.

From there, Aerrow’s exo-Skimmer was down to its manoeuvring jets, nowhere near enough to get it to the Exopod. So instead, as Piper watched through the _Condor_ ’s periscopes – which thankfully had been modified with the rest of the ship to have much further range – Aerrow was building up to sling Radarr’s co-pilot pod straight towards the Exopod, despite the risk it would send Aerrow out to the point of no return.

“ _Piper, I’m going to need a new calculation_ ,” Aerrow’s voice announced again over the radio. “ _This time with me going around the_ far side _of the Atmos_.”

Piper’s horrified response was instant. “Aerrow, that’s never been done before!”

“I really don’t think that’s gonna stop him,” Stork commented bitterly from beside Piper, at the helm. Piper was instantly mentally struggling, the pressure closing in on her from all psychological sides – she’d failed on the first calculations and that was just on the part about getting Aerrow up there, never mind getting him back down!

“ _Piper_?” Aerrow’s voice urged again.

“I-I’ve never done this kind of math before!” Piper stressed, her voice growing more frantic with the tension. “What if it’s wrong?! What if-”

“ _Piper_!” Aerrow’s voice stopped her, as he sincerely said without a hint of falseness: “ _I trust you_.”

Piper sighed for a moment, resolved. Then, she was instantly gathering her spirits back up as she became focused and calm.

“Okay, on your current trajectory, you’ll need a ten-second thruster-burst at twenty-three degrees,” Piper declared, her voice directed at Aerrow. But whilst this was going on, up in the exosphere high above the Atmos, Aerrow’s green eyes were widening in pure awe at the sight he beheld shining over the world’s horizon, its pale light washing over the visor of his helmet…

“ _You guys, I can see_ -!” Warped interference and static hissed over the radio before Aerrow could finish his sentence, much to everyone’s concern. A quick inspection by Piper through the periscope revealed the unmistakable, tiny pinprick-glimmer of Aerrow’s Skimmer above the stratosphere, disappearing beyond the craggy lip of the Barrier Cliffs that rose taller and greater than any other formation in all of Atmos had ever risen.

From there, Piper and the guys on the _Condor_ could only wait in uncertainty, hoping, for Aerrow to complete the route round, as he’d drifted far out of all radio range beyond the Cliffs – passing over the Far Side of Atmos. In fact, the Storm Hawks on the _Condor_ could have forgotten about the Exopod in the anxious wait – right up until a colossal column-beam of blazing red light came blasting down from the heavens through the clouding like a knife through butter; just missing the _Condor_ by quarter a league, as its violent flash blinded everyone onboard. It was instantly obvious that that could only mean the Exopod was operational, and a quick look through the periscope at their surroundings gave all the confirmation Piper needed that it was aimed at them; as she saw a Cyclonian battle-cruiser hanging nearby.

Thankfully, it was as the weapon of mass destruction was priming for another, final shot high above the world; that the ferret-creature turned exo-naut who’d been uselessly hitting it with a crowbar up until now, sent it careening in its position in space as he pushed himself off of it. In fact, it was just as the weapon’s red crystal-point with its intensifying glow, came round to face said exo-naut, that with a frantic last bat that wasn’t a millisecond too late; Radarr sent its blazing destructive beam firing down, spread over multiple directions as the pod was twisting in space. The result was one of the two ships in the targeted area getting hit, but that ship certainly wasn’t the _Condor_.

A few moments afterwards, Radarr was spacewalking back towards his waiting pot, whilst the Exopod was left to fall from its orbit away to the green-blue sea of the world below; its round black shape quickly turning to a yellow fireball.

* * *

Master Cyclonis looked up with a deep scowl of anger from below the telescopic contraption, as its view out through the throne room’s domed ceiling showed the shooting fireball of the Exosphere burning up in the atmosphere beyond Cyclonia’s obscuring red clouds.

“ _Well that’s unfortunate_ …” Smaug’s eloquent voice purred out somewhat smugly from the communication crystal. “And _I was just starting to think_ more _of the Cyclonian Empire as well_ …” Cyclonis turned to face the glowing crystal from which the dragon’s voice emanated; her face remained calm but was stormy-dark.

“Oh, I can promise you, Smaug, that failure like this will have consequences,” Cyclonis hissed out, with her purple eyes threateningly dark though it wasn’t Smaug that their look was directed towards. Ravess had now cost them not only one of Cyclonia’s most valuable and potential projects, but also an alliance with a greatly-powerful potential ally that Cyclonis had very much wanted on their side.

“ _Do you?_ ” Smaug’s voice replied to what Cyclonis had said. “ _Perhaps, but after what I’ve seen of Cyclonia’s performance today, know this,_ human,” Smaug’s voice spat out venomously and viciously; “ _if I ever hear you come grovelling to me to ask for my alliance again, I will_ burn _out the heart of your empire all the way down to its roots in the ground_!”

* * *

“Urgent transmission, Commander,” a voice reported flatly, from right next to Ravess where she clung on for dear life to the sinking battle-cruiser’s now-vertical floor; the Cyclonian whom it belonged to hanging from a fixed-down pole right next to Ravess as he practically poked the speaker-piece into her face. “From Master Cyclonis.”

Ravess snatched the mouthpiece into her hand, letting the underling fall downward with a cry, as she held it close to her face. As their battle-cruiser was falling down, taken out by their own weapon right before it had been sent falling from orbit; Ravess was now feeling even more nervous in the gut for what was to come than she had before.

“Master Cyclonis?” she all but stuttered into the radio-piece.

* * *

“Radarr’s on-course for the pickup point!” Stork reported, peering through the periscope.

“Aerrow, come in!” Finn desperately tried again over the radio – nothing but static greeted his and Piper’s ears.

“Keep trying!” Piper insisted.

“Aerrow! _Aerrow!_ ”

Still, nothing but the blank white hiss played over the main radio speaker as the whole crew looked up to it like it were the very beacon that would signal for Aerrow’s life; tense, hopeful, waiting. Then…

“ _Like I said, I’ll be fine_!”

Everyone on the bridge took a moment to sigh with relief and cheer amongst themselves at their leader’s voice.

“ _Twenty-three degrees_ ,” Aerrow echoed. “ _Perfect calculation, Piper!_ ” Finn, Stork and Junko all grinned and nudged or put a reassuring arm around Piper’s shoulder. But next came the tricky part as they all waited and scanned around, looking for any sign of Aerrow coming back in.

“ _There_!” Piper pointed as she spotted the familiar blue shape through her binoculars, coming in like a fireball. “Junko, extend the net!” A flick of a switch by the wallop Storm Hawk later, and what looked like a giant fishing net was extended out between the _Condor_ ’s two main bow-points.

Junko had the tip of his tongue poking through the corner of his mouth as he focused, adjusting the net’s angle and piloting the _Condor_ at the helm; the fireball coming in closer at shocking speeds.

“Oh, man, there’s no way we’ll be able to catch that safely!” Finn groaned tensely.

Piper in turn was frantically looking around as though for anything useful, in the seconds they had left before the Skimmer hit them. Her eyes narrowed in determination as an idea came to her, and she was instantly darting across the bridge over to a particular table of clutter against the wall, which she sifted through relentlessly. Piper quickly found exactly what she was looking for, and held up the ocean-blue telepath crystal she’d developed for herself.

As the burning object was approaching like a meteor, Piper quickly sat herself down on the floor in a meditative position, with the crystal between her hands and her eyes closed in deep focus; as she reached across the familiar thread that was the bond within her, pulling along the well of power that lay on it…

The Skimmer was still hurtling in fast…

Piper’s closed eyes scrunched up as she frantically pulled further on the well to get more power into herself…

The Skimmer’s speed seemed to be slowing down as though the force of friction was increasing against it, though it was still a speeding bullet…

Piper almost grit her teeth as she pulled further and harder. _Just a little more_ …

The whistle that was like the death-cry of a burning sky-ride falling seemed to suddenly lessen down, as did the white-hot flames searing across the Skimmer’s surface… about a second before it ploughed into the _Condor_ ’s net so hard that the whole ship was yanked vertically downward by the force; everyone on board including Piper finding themselves splattered painfully hard against the front windshields’ glass in an instant. The ship hung ludicrously like that in the air for a moment, the net hanging nearly the same length further below it.

Then, slowly but surely, the ship began to tilt itself upward, back into a stable, upright position. As it did, everyone who was flattened on the inside of the windshields painfully slid away back to the floor, with a very loud squeaking sound. Whilst in the modified Skimmer hanging in the net, Aerrow gave a relieved sigh that he had not snapped his neck, from where he was facing downward with the pod so that the thick lower cloud was all that was in front of his face. As he spared a glance at his co-pilot in the Skimmer’s adjoining pod, Radarr gave him an optimistic thumbs-up.

* * *

It was long after the sun had set that Aerrow found himself out on the external deck, the gentle night winds brushing serenely through his hair and over his body; as he simply stared up to the stars shining in the sea of deep blue, completely lost to his thoughts. No-one, first or otherwise; could see what Aerrow had seen today up in the exosphere, and be able to look the same at the stars above the tiny world they lived on again.

“Aerrow?” Piper’s voice called softly from behind him, and he glanced back to look at her. “I hope I’m not interrupting…”

“No, not at all,” he assured her calmly, as she came up beside him to join him.

“So, you really did it,” Piper shot sideways over to him as they both stared up at the overhead stars together.

“I guess so…” Aerrow murmured, his eyes never leaving the open heavens above them.

“What was it like?” Piper asked gently.

“It’s… hard to find the words,” was truly all that Aerrow could say.

“Who needs words?” Piper chirped softly. “At least you got pictures!” Aerrow rolled his eyes at the reminder of the blurred pictures he’d taken up there that proved he was a lousy photographer, whilst Piper put a soft, friendly hand on his shoulder.

“Great move using the bond to slow us down by the way,” Aerrow complimented Piper softly as they leaned against the deck’s railing.

“Thanks,” Piper said softly but genuinely, withdrawing her arm to herself. Then humbly: “I really didn’t know if that would work, I just improvised.”

“Well, we all would’ve probably been flattened into a crater in the Wastelands if you hadn’t,” Aerrow said, “so… thanks.” Piper exchanged the warmest friendly smile yet with Aerrow. Then they both turned their gazes back onto the stars above them once more.


	9. Robbing a Giant

The Storm Hawks had been looking in a remote sector for a Gravitron Crystal that Piper’s crystal formation charts had predicted – one which Aerrow had wanted to get to before anyone else could learn of it, because where there was a precious crystal in Atmos, Smaug likely wouldn’t be far behind once he heard of it. Sadly, they found they weren’t the only ones to track the Gravitron, and the Raptors were there for it too.

Stork and Lugey had been the ones to reach the crystal first, only for Stork to accidentally trigger its effects when he swallowed it. Piper had thankfully been able to deactivate the crystal on the _Condor_ , but not before it had stuck Stork and Lugey together, back to back. So the Storm Hawks had kept Lugey from running back to Repton with Stork still on his back (which was quite easy since Lugey was neither the brightest nor the most intelligent Raptor; he even at one point proved useful in ridding a distressed cruiser of a sky-shark). Then Piper had returned with news of a way to separate the two, but it needed crystals that only one person in Atmos had all of: Gundstaff, a huge giant who wasn’t known for being the gentlest kind of recluse.

The Storm Hawks had flown to the giant’s terra hut, where they’d found him to be asleep at his work desk; though that slumber hadn’t lasted long at all before Lugey just had to open his big mouth. A few moments later, the Storm Hawks were all running across the floor of the giant’s proportionately-large home like mice as he furiously tried to crush them with his crystal-mace. Aerrow, Radarr, Finn and Junko thankfully all kept Gundstaff distracted, just long enough for Piper and Lugey to run for the huge vault door and pull it shut behind them.

Piper gaped in pure awe at the vast collection she saw all around her. Like the rest of Gundstaff’s home, the crystal vault was proportionate for the giant’s size rather than a regular-sized person’s – shelves and shelves of crystals, various different glows emanating from each of them, stretched from the floor at the bottom up the long wide silo walls, simply out of sight.

“Whoa! There must be thousands of crystals here!” Piper couldn’t help herself as she stared amazed. “I could spend days just…” She was cut off by an angry yell and thud from behind the door, that sent her hand flying to her mouth as her eyes went wide like a doe’s. “Maybe next time,” Piper groaned.

With Stork and Lugey’s help, Piper quickly made a pulley on which to reach the many shelves of crystals high above the floor, Lugey pulling the rope to take her higher up from one shelf to the next for a new crystal. It was when Piper had no more than a couple of the crystals she needed, that Gundstaff burst in through the door; with Aerrow, Finn, Radarr and Junko visible trapped tight in a box beyond the doorway. And Gundstaff wasn’t happy to see his precious crystals in Piper’s hands.

Gundstaff gave an enraged roar as he took a swing with his mace. Piper plucked a particular red crystal and leapt away off the wall just a second before Gundstaff’s mace could crush her. In the moment that the pulley took her swinging through the air towards the opposite side of the vault, she threw the red crystal with a roar straight for Gundstaff’s head.

“ARGH!” Gundstaff cried out in pain from the flash that engulfed his vision. Then in the moment the grey-bearded giant opened his beady black eyes again, he went frantically swinging his mace at thin air, dazed. Piper grinned as she leapt off the wall again, going for another shelf, occupied by bright green crystals.

“Just a couple more and I’ll have all the crystals we need to separate you!” Piper cried down to the guys on the ground as she plucked up a stone from the shelf, while Gundstaff continued to groan and stagger around the vault blindly. Sadly, time didn’t seem to be on Piper’s side, as she was just taking the last crystal from higher up along the wall, when she looked down to see with a frightened yelp, that Gundstaff had regained his senses and was glaring murderously right up at her.

“Um… guys?” Piper called down nervously. “Help!”

Lugey pulled on the pulley rope – just in time to get Piper away before the swing of Gundstaff’s mace could splatter her out of the air. She went sailing for an opposite part of the wall, then leapt off that with a frightened cry as Gundstaff’s mace smashed into it, right where she’d been.

It was several more swings on the pulley and barely-missed strikes from Gundstaff’s mace, before the giant’s attention finally left Piper when Lugey suddenly ran out into clear view below him; the broad and big-sized Raptor trembling comically with buckling knees where he stood, while Stork could only stare over his shoulder in bug-eyed fear. Gundstaff instantly leered down at them maliciously.

“Okay, so what do we do?” Lugey asked Stork in a voice hoarse with fright.

“You’re asking me?!” Stork exclaimed, craning his neck as far as he could to address the Raptor whose back he was stuck to. “You’re the one who jumped out here, you meat-headed salamander!!”

“Hey! That hurts my feelings!” Both their attention was momentary taken off their little argument as Gundstaff, towering above them, raised his weapon above his head with a roaring cry.

“I am so SORRY!” Stork screeched at Lugey’s head. “By all means, let’s discuss your feelings, _when an enormous giant is trying to SMUSH us_!!”

“I don’t know which to mash first!” Gundstaff yelled from where he’d paused with his crystal-mace raised, his beady eyes looking between the fused pair below him as the giant looked like he had a headache coming on. “You’re both so _annoying_!”

But in the several moments that Gundstaff had been distracted with Stork and Lugey, Piper had managed to swing on the pulley higher up to collect the last crystal she needed, then to another particular shelf that held crystals which were each closer to the size of a person. Grunting, Piper pushed and forced the large glowing stone towards the shelf’s edge. Then with one final cry, she sent it falling overboard, sailing downward – to impact on Gundstaff’s head with a painfully loud sound. Though it didn’t sound nearly as painful as when Gundstaff’s mace that flew out of his hand, fell violently back down upon his head. Stork and Lugey both shot cheers up at Piper, in the moment after the giant had collapsed to the floor, out cold.

“Yes!” Piper leapt to go straight downwards on the pulley, towards the giant-sized bowl. The moment she safely touched down on the bowl’s edge, she wasted no time in hurling the crystals gathered in her arms inside; letting them swirl and roll and cascade together around the bowl’s sides towards the bottom before, as Piper leapt free of the edge, the crystals came together in a beautiful yellow-orange flash.

“One combo deactivation crystal coming up!” Piper exclaimed, peering over the bowl edge to the glowing result within. “Nothing can stop us now!” Almost as soon as those words were out of Piper’s mouth, she was just reaching to pick the new combo crystal up when she heard the rev of sky-rides approaching in land-mode. As Piper immediately climbed back down to the floor, removing her pulley harness; Repton’s Bone-Wing came hurtling into the vault through the doorway, grinding to a fast halt a foot beside Piper, the rider instantly seizing her by the arms too fast for her to react.

“I believe you have something that belongs to me!” Repton snarled viciously in his sandpaper-dry voice, his savage teeth within inches of Piper’s ear as he held her in a vice-like grip. The leader of the Raptors was darker-skinned and more athletic-looking than Lugey, and he certainly had a more intelligent yet vicious look in his eyes as he glared down at her.

“Ooh! Uh… Me?” Lugey chipped up like a schoolkid.

“ _Fine_ …” Repton growled out slowly, with frightening barely-contained anger. “ _Two_ things!” he hissed into Piper’s face, his own snarling face barely half a foot from hers. The moment Spitz and Hoerk, the other two Raptors, came buzzing in on their own rides behind their leader, Repton wasted no time in hurling Piper straight into their arms with a disgusted roar; Piper crying out painfully as Spitz instantly caught her.

“Boy, oh boy, boss!” Lugey chirped up, his tone just as lighthearted as his stride straight up to his leader, while Stork desperately tried to curl himself away out of sight behind Lugey’s back. “You’re not gonna believe what happened to me! First, this guy swallowed the Gravo-tron crystal thingy-” Stork’s eyes bulged in terror behind Lugey’s head “-so now, it’s in his belly and I’m stuck to him! And then, there was a sky-shark, and then candy, and-” Lugey didn’t seem to notice the way Repton appeared to be building with volcanic pressure until he finally exploded at him nastily.

“QUIET!!” Lugey instantly went silent, submissively. “So, you swallowed it?” Repton questioned in a frightening tone as he stared right over Lugey’s shoulder, at the Merp cringing in terror on his back. A particularly nasty fanged grin spread across Repton’s reptile face. “This could get… _messy_!” Stork could barely suppress the tiny squeal of fright, whilst Lugey scratched a chubby finger to his forehead.

“Oh, hey, she did it boss!” Lugey instantly gestured over to where Piper was held firm by Spitz and Hoerk on either side. She met Repton’s gaze fearlessly as she still slightly struggled against the Raptors’ hold. “She can deactivate the Gravi-matron crystal!”

Repton turned up a dismissive _hrmph_ at her. “Why would I want to deactivate it?” His gaze drifted, cold and bone-chilling, right back onto Stork. “ _No_ …” But what no-one noticed was that Piper had suddenly relaxed her body in the Raptors’ grip and gone calm, her eyes closed in meditative concentration as she looked within and pulled, already building the power to her fists…

Repton’s sharp bladed weapon was at his side as his eyes met Stork’s fully; cold and unflinching, as the Merp’s terrified gaze flit between Repton’s weapon in hand and his merciless face. “I’ll get it out of you… _another way_!”

But it was just at that moment that, with a cry, Piper unleashed the power she’d been building in a violent blast. It instantly sent Spitz and Hoerk hurtling straight off of her to crash hard into the vault walls, dazed; while Repton and Lugey were likewise thrown off their feet to the floor by the shockwave. Stork’s eyes popped in his skull and all the air in his lungs just escaped him as he was flattened to the floor by Lugey landing on his back.

Piper was already in a battle-like pose, her face firm and her amber eyes fierce, as Repton was recovering from where he and Lugey had hit the floor, groaning. Sitting up from where he’d fallen, growling, the Raptor leader regarded Piper with an astonished but hateful glare; which she met fiercely, already fully prepared to send another blast straight at Repton the moment he got up and moved again to attack her.

But that moment didn’t come, as three more figures leapt into the room.

“So, what did we miss?” Aerrow exclaimed at the scene before him and his squadron-mates, all of them already in battle-poses.

Repton glanced from Piper over to the guys furiously. “GET THEM!” he roared to his teammates, already back on his feet. But a quick glance around the vault showed him; Spitz and Hoerk both groaning in pain, slumped against the wall where Piper’s blast had thrown them hard enough to leave impressions in the metal, while Lugey was just groaning miserably in half-consciousness, where he lay near Repton’s feet with Stork suffocating underneath him.

Repton couldn’t suppress the snarl of anger that escaped through his gritted teeth – a second before, with barely any warning, he lashed straight for the Storm Hawks with a war-cry. Though it was four against one, Repton still held his own against the guys, engaging them and throwing them off of him all at once. Piper, meanwhile, had another drawn shot of power waiting at her fingertips as she stood in the same position on standby, ready to hit Repton with another blast the moment the guys were out of the line of fire. A couple minutes into the fight, Lugey had recovered, and was rubbing his head sorely as he stood back up from the floor (Stork instantly gasping in as much air as his lungs could possibly take), faced with the fight scene before him.

“Okay, let’s see, let’s see…” Lugey murmured hurriedly like a kid under pressure to solve a maths puzzle, on the spot in the middle of the fighting that was carrying itself everywhere around the vault they were in. Even Piper had by now managed to chip in two well-aimed, invisible, blasting flashes at Repton as the fight raged. “On one hand, Repton is through with yelling at me…” he contemplated. “On the other hand, the Storm Hawks are _really_ nice! I don’t know what to do!”

Stork immediately had a suggestion as he had a full view of Repton throwing Finn off his shoulders, Junko coming upon the lead Raptor in the moment his attention was undivided. “How about you…” In the second Repton had been focused on Finn on the floor, with a fist raised to finish him, Junko came in and swung a punch at Repton with a yell. “…DUCK!”

But Lugey didn’t duck, as Repton was sent smashing right into Stork’s gut – sending the purple, atom-shaped crystal popping out from Stork’s mouth like popping bubble-wrap, and rolling away along the floor. Spitz and Hoerk had already started picking themselves up from where they’d been incapacitated, and Repton’s daze and pain seemed to be instantly forgotten when his eyes caught and followed the Gravitron Crystal rolling away.

“My _crystal_!” Repton exclaimed after it in a very airy, greedy voice. “ _After it you fools_!” Repton was already back on his feet from where he’d been slumped against Stork and Lugey, darting straight after the crystal; Spitz, Lugey and Hoerk were obediently tailing right behind after him at his roar. But Lugey stopped at the doorway while the other Raptors ran ahead, and spared a look back over his shoulder at Stork; who was standing fragile-looking and awkward.

“So, uh…” Stork started, seeming not quite sure of what to say. Lugey gave him a goofy-looking grin. “Let’s… _never speak of this again_.” Lugey nodded in agreement.

“Let’s go!” Aerrow called to his squadron, and a second later; the Storm Hawks were all sprinting out right past Lugey, who didn’t do anything to try and stop nor impede them, as they escaped.

“ _GRRR_ … How could you be so _foolish_?!” Repton screeched, furious, as he stormed right up to Lugey with the Gravitron in hand. “ _Do you know how hard it was to track you and this crystal_?! WELL?! _SAY SOMETHING_!!”

A second later, Lugey’s gigantic arms were pulling his vicious brother into an adorable embrace. “Ah, I missed you too, boss!”

“What did I tell you about the _hugging_?!” Repton rasped harshly but somewhat gently into Lugey’s ear.

“Oh! Heh! Sorry, boss!” Lugey apologised, putting his brother down, as Repton’s first action was to instantly look around and make sure nobody had seen that.

But one thing that Piper, and her team-mates for that matter, didn’t know; was that in her increasingly-frequent use of her power since the mission to the stratosphere, she’d started making it easier, like poking a swab into one’s ear too many unwise times; for the one on the other end of the link to become more aware and start peering through, whenever she tapped into her power. And now, that other had clearly seen a great, massive vault of crystals; _hundreds_ of shelves of so many shining, colourful kinds and assortments, countless precious rarities beyond mortal value, on walls stretching so high up it was nearly impossible to see; apparently on a terra belonging to one called a giant, named Gundstaff.

* * *

It took Smaug two days of travelling to reach the sector where this _Gundstaff_ lived; in a rather secluded region to the northeast of Atmos. Greed and lust propelled him onward, as he spent what time he didn’t gorging himself on catches for energy, flying almost tirelessly straight for his destination as though he couldn’t get there fast enough.

Piper, wherever in Atmos she was now, had been playing a little too much with things that were beyond her understanding, namely the power connecting between them; as was the arrogance of mortals in their ever-present blindness and foolishness. And in doing so, she’d let Smaug peer through into her mind, to see what she had seen – and Smaug had basked in awe as he had seen her looking _up_ as far as she could; upon massive shelves big enough to each fit a house on, hundreds of them glowing with so many different crystals from across the Atmos. Smaug had hardly been able to believe it, it was _almost_ as though he were looking upon a new Erebor!

Upon getting over his initial shock, Smaug had immediately set out to claim such a _great, vast treasury_ for himself. It was just like when he’d come upon the Lonely Mountain all those years ago, he was well-aware with dark mirth, and he now came closer to the edge of his targeted location.

Smaug’s form crept stealthy and swift on the currents of the air through the thick cover of the clouds, his approach deceivingly silent and undetected as his superior draconic vision spied the home of Gundstaff far up ahead. Beyond the cloudy haze which seemed to cover this area from the world, there was nestled a single, rather medium-sized terra. It was an unremarkable sight to Smaug’s eyes. Thin, grassy greenery barely coated its surfaces to distinguish it from its rocky cousins in all directions; with descending zig-zag footpaths that had clearly been bored on the terra by tools rather than naturally formed. Dominating about three-quarters of the entire terra’s top was a rather crude-looking hut of metal, like someone had just slapped a big can on the terra and a few smaller bits of tin atop it. But what surprised Smaug as he scoured out his target up ahead, was the proportionately-huge size of the little tin-like dwelling’s windows and doors.

Hardly one for wasting such an opportunity to make a grand entrance, Smaug snapped out his wings as he came straight for the terra; the hot, dry winds and roaring noise like a hurricane whooshing powerfully ahead of him to precede his arrival. The effect was noticed instantaneously, as just five seconds after the terra’s fragile-thin layers of grass were producing rippling patterns visible even from afar; a giant of a mortal had come stomping out from the tin-home’s huge front door.

Smaug looked down with just a little surprise on the one whom he instantly realised had to be Gundstaff. While Smaug hadn’t been dismissive of the notion in mortals’ minds that this Gundstaff was a giant, mortals did have a contemptible tendency to exaggerate something as _giant_ when it were no more than an above-average specimen in size; and that had made Smaug sceptical. As Smaug came swooping towards the terra, he saw that the specimen below was very much like the traditional legends of giants that he’d heard of: beings who were like Men yet many times bigger than they.

Gundstaff had come running out at the unnatural hot gale of a wind that had beat down on his terra out of nowhere; and his beady black eyes widened in shock as he looked up, and saw the great red dragon that was flying in. For a moment, fear and horror had eclipsed Gundstaff’s being, but then it had been replaced with a fierce, defensive fury, as the dragon was quickly coming in towards his home on the winds. What Gundstaff knew in that moment was that this overgrown animal was encroaching upon his home; and he wasn’t about to let some huge slobbering beast from the wilds, however huge and however fearsome-looking, rampage about his house and trash his lab and mess with his crystals.

Smaug seemed to be swooping to attack Gundstaff rather than the bigger metal home behind him, letting out a roar at the giant ahead of him. The giant in turn let out a bloodthirsty battle-cry of his own as he raised his crystal-mace, ready to meet the beast head-on.

Gundstaff’s mace smacked hard into the side of the dragon’s head as the creature came upon him like a bird of prey, though that didn’t stop the huge beast’s momentum from violently forcing Gundstaff backwards, into the metal wall of his hut. The dragon – which was the size of an elephant in proportion to Gundstaff, as giant and dragon were about to fight – rose on its four limbs upon the terra, having crashed in its landing, roaring furiously. It craned its head on its long, flexible neck to keep it clear of the flurry of mace-strikes that Gundstaff threw its way.

As Gundstaff was distracted swinging for the right wing, which Smaug almost-casually lifted back to let the mace swing through air, the dragon snapped his open jaws forward for the giant’s exposed right arm like a viper; yellow eyes shining, gleaming with his bloodlust. But Gundstaff saw it coming and reacted just in time, smacking the dragon’s right eye hard with immense physical strength. Smaug screeched in pain and fury at the strike as his attack was cut off.

Taking the opportunity, Gundstaff swung another hard attack with his mace straight into the dragon’s head; causing enough further pain to make the large beast, roaring with its anger, blindly lashed out with a clawed wing-limb for the giant. Gundstaff just managed to dodge the very deadly swipe with a duck of his powerfully-built body, but before he could try getting out of where he was cornered; the dragon, roaring furiously, whirled its whole body on the ground to bring its long, powerful-looking tail smashing straight into Gundstaff.

The tail packed even greater strength in it than Gundstaff could have thought, hitting him with such force that the big, powerful giant was sent hurtling clean off the ground through the air. He went flying from where he’d been cornered by his hut with the dragon, to land hard, kicking up dirt as he stopped; just a metre short of the terra peak’s edge. A growl of a groan escaped from Gundstaff’s lips, which a thin trail of red was now running from down into his grey beard. He quickly forced himself back up to his feet, against the searing pain in his chest that was like the sinews inside him had been cut with scissors. Gundstaff’s highly-tough clothing was probably the only reason that blow hadn’t cut him in half, and even then, he didn’t need to look to feel the purple line of bruising that was already forming across his chest.

Smaug had recovered from the hard hit to his head that had disoriented him, and he whirled his blazing, murderous gaze to where the giant had landed no more than a bounding leap’s distance away for the dragon. Sucking in a huge breath, the orange light shined inside Smaug’s throat, before he let loose a full torrent of flames, targeted forward. Gundstaff, who’d been expecting the dragon to come charging him, just barely ducked with a cry behind a very large rock in time to escape the molten fire that surged past; the heat from the flames searing through the rock enough to redden Gundstaff’s skin, as he cried out with pain.

The moment the flames were cut off, Smaug was instantly bounding straight for where the giant had hid with a furious roar, his body leaving the ground as he leapt clear of the higher hill, his wings spread. Roaring himself, Gundstaff turned and swung out with his mace as he emerged from his cover – just as Smaug had expected as he immediately swerved away to avoid the strike. And as Smaug sailed past the giant, his hind-claws the size of Gundstaff’s torso; were splayed out, intended to catch the giant and push him to the dirt. But the giant seemed to see it coming at the last second and _grabbed on_ to Smaug’s hind-leg with a yell; taking the giant flying with Smaug out onto the open air, as the dragon screeched in surprise at the giant’s extra weight that almost threatened to drag him down toward the Wastelands, making Smaug flap his wings more frantically.

Gundstaff relentlessly smashed and beat his mace against Smaug’s side from where the giant held on by the leg, earning a furious roar from the dragon as it craned its head on its neck to look at him, eyes shining madly. Twisting, Smaug flew straight towards the roof of Gundstaff’s hut, intending to _scrape_ him off on it. But Gundstaff saw what was coming up straight ahead and, with a cry, released his hold on Smaug’s leg, to go plummeting to the terra.

It took Gundstaff a good several seconds to pull himself back up onto his feet from where he’d landed hard, whilst the dragon was circling fast in the sky around the terra. Gundstaff just managed to keep himself standing up, his figure now quite bloody and purple-bruised all over; as the dragon’s huge form came in and landed right across from where Gundstaff was. The larger beast’s shadow was cast over nearly the entire terra top, as it turned its fiery intelligent eyes onto the giant it dwarfed; a savage, insane grin of malice across its muzzle.

Smaug had been surprised and almost impressed to find that this giant, despite being a disappointingly small creature compared to most of the giant stories he’d heard in Middle-Earth (which described giants the size of _mountains_ ); had put up quite the rabid little dogfight against him. Though it would ultimately be useless, Smaug already knew as he had every intention of finishing this beast off. The many strikes the giant had managed to land – chiefly to Smaug’s head but also to other parts of his body – had not been able to penetrate through his indestructible scales, but they had certainly _hurt_ with the amount of force and strength in them. And pain was a sensation that Smaug was quite seldom used to experiencing; he hadn’t had a challenge like this in a _long time_.

Gundstaff narrowed his eyes (one of which was now slightly bloodshot and half-closed), his mouth pulled into a determined snarl as he slowly advanced forward at the dragon; resisting any limp in his step as he held his mace in both hands, stomping tall against the pain shooting through his back, refusing to look weak to this vicious creature. But as Gundstaff was moving onward towards the dragon that didn’t yield its position, as though the giant intended to just beat and drive it over the edge that was behind it like shooing a loose animal out of the garden; Smaug’s yellow eyes were already spying the opportunities around him as he took note of all the land formations upon the terra.

The moment he’d assessed his surroundings and formulated what he would do in his brain, the dragon immediately turned, ran, spread his wings, and took to the air again. The moment he was off the terra and twisting low in the air above, Smaug whipped his long tail out below him; letting it strike the terra with a force like a thunderbolt. The shuddering tremor struck through the ground, making it shake beneath Gundstaff’s feet as the giant momentarily struggled to keep his footing. The landslide of rolling rocks came forward with the tremor, surging from where they were barely-visible amongst the shrubbery straight for Gundstaff, as the giant turned around to see them with a cry. But the giant’s momentary distraction with that was just what Smaug wanted, as he attacked.

Smaug’s jaws snapped seemingly out of nowhere upon Gundstaff’s arm, a split-second before the rest of the dragon came barrelling into Gundstaff hard enough to knock him down. The giant almost-instantly cried out loud in agony. The thickly-packed sinew of Gundstaff’s muscularly-built arm was probably the only reason the limb wasn’t bitten or torn clean off in Smaug’s jaws; as the dragon, with a great hurl of massive strength in his muscular neck, threw the giant from the ground hurtling through the air… to crash into his hut’s wall with a rattling sound, that actually shook the terra nearly as greatly as Smaug’s tail had. Gundstaff immediately collapsed from where he’d smashed into the upper-half of the hut, to the ground with a shudder that reverberated throughout the entire peak; the giant clutching his bleeding, savaged arm desperately to himself. But the dragon wasn’t finished with him yet, Gundstaff saw as he weakly looked up with a groan, and his single non-swollen eye went wide.

Smaug was sucking in a deep, hissing breath, the light of his fire shining through right up his chest and neck again to the back of his mouth. Then Smaug unleashed the molten flames, bellowing forth upon the beaten giant’s form. Gundstaff screamed through the flow of flames that washed over his figure as he tried to shield himself with his non-injured arm, staggering backwards toward the edge where Smaug was herding him to with his fire. And the giant fell right over the edge, away from the burning flames with a cry. Gundstaff’s figure fell hard against a narrow ridge on the terra side below the topmost point he’d just fallen from, which only served to delay his fall before he toppled over that to slam into another ridge. Then that took him rolling weakly downward and off its edge; the injured, burned, beaten giant going rolling down, yelling, along the terra slopes, until he was lost to sight beyond the hazy clouds that pressed against the terra’s sides further down.

Smaug didn’t go down after the giant to try and finish him off, for he was brought pleasure by the thought that if he did live beyond this day, he would be left with _nothing at all_. Turning and taking back to the air, the great dragon turned his attention to spreading more orange fire over the terra as he circled round it; bathing the giant rock in dragonfire to burn away its greenery and turn its soil to ash.

* * *

The _Condor_ ’s bridge was in a rather cheery, celebratory mood; as everyone was sat or standing around, discussing their recent visit to the festival on Terra Blizzaris, and helping themselves to the several pizzas they’d been able to order.

“I’m telling you, it was the Third Degree Burners who crossed that finish line first!” Finn argued with Junko, referring to the festival race he’d bet on – and lost, of course.

“Finn, every inch of the race was recorded from all the angles of the racing track, and the judges’ look back over it showed that it was the Screaming Queens who touched the finishing line first,” Piper insisted, from where she was sitting next to Finn at the bridge’s table with a drink in hand. She had been taking her pizza in considerably smaller mouthfuls than Junko, who was sending crust-crumbs spraying two feet from his mouth at the opposite end of the table.

“Sorry, Finn, looks like you’re going to be doing that bathroom-scrubbing you agreed to after all,” Aerrow said lightly, putting a consoling hand on the downbeat Storm Hawk marksman’s shoulder.

“If you don’t like doing these things for losing bets so badly, maybe you shouldn’t be so quick to bet on them,” Piper softly chided Finn’s ridiculous need to take the bait when it came to betting.

“Hey, Finn does _not_ back down from _any_ challenge just because the chances look weak!” Finn snapped loudly at her, in the tone of a child being told by his parents he couldn’t go to a cool kids’ gig to prove himself; he even jumped up in his seat.

“Um, if anyone’s feeling up for having their joyous festival spirits crushed…” Stork’s ever-sullen voice spoke up to be heard by everyone on the bridge as he stepped forward, looking a bit grimmer than usual. “…there’s an incident report on the radio I think you should hear…”

A few moments later, the Storm Hawks were all away from their pizza and listening the transmission Stork had picked up, as it played over the radio’s speaker on _Condor_ ’s bridge. It was fuzzy with static, but the voice over it was clear.

“… _Oh, my word…_ ” the voice crackled over as the Storm Hawks all listened below the radio-speaker intently, with the person speaking sounding as if he’d just discovered the scene of a family massacre. “ _Whoever’s hearing this… honestly, I don’t even know how to describe what I’m seeing down here. It’s like… Mr. Gundstaff’s whole terra was been scorched completely dry_ …”

“Gundstaff’s terra?!” Aerrow exclaimed, green eyes wide with surprise.

“Weren’t we just there a couple days ago?” Junko chipped in his own shock. “When Stork swallowed that Gravitron and was stuck to Lugey, and we had to get them separated…?” He voiced everyone’s thoughts at the news.

“Wait, let’s see if there’s more,” Piper spoke up, her eyes wide and fixed dead on the speaker overhead. She seriously hoped it wasn’t true, that this wasn’t what she thought it would be, with a growing sense of dread. But as the voice went on over the speaker:

“… _the crystal-shop’s been torn open, I… can’t see_ any _crystals left_. _I don’t know for sure, but, I think Smaug, the Dragon-Dread, has struck again_ …”

All the Storm Hawks on the bridge exchanged looks of shock, confusion and despair with each-other at the news as they all thought the same thing. Smaug had attacked Gundstaff’s terra, just _two days_ after they’d been there to fix the problem with the Gravitron Crystal? Everyone unanimously thought in their minds, this was no coincidence.

But no-one’s gaze up at the speaker that announced the grim news, was more shocked, more horrified and more crushed beyond measure; than Piper’s. As memories flashed behind her amber eyes, memories of the power she’d been constantly slurping up from the bond and had then released in Gundstaff’s vault, and the glorious sight of countless treasurable crystals she had beheld in there… And she quickly came to the most obvious conclusion.


	10. The Princess and the Dragon

The situation that Piper found herself in while she’d been mapping a new sector on her own was definitely one of the more bizarre ones she’d ever landed in; and as a Storm Hawk, she could list off a few.

After hours of scouring which revealed nothing but sky and clouds all around her; Piper had nearly crashed into a high stone tower looming through the treacherous cloud-fog. She’d been overwhelmed at the opportunity to investigate a whole new community that may have had no prior contact with the rest of Atmos – though that thought had quickly been kicked to the back of Piper’s mind, when the first person here who emerged on the tower’s balcony to greet her was an exact mirror image of _herself_ ; dressed in a princess’s finery, with a matching shocked expression at the sight of the Storm Hawk on her Heliscooter.

Perry (she’d asked to be called that over Princess Peregrine) had introduced herself to an amazed Piper as the local royalty on this new terra, known as Klockstoppia. As she and Piper had looked each-other over, taking in their matching appearance, Perry had wondered aloud if it was possible they could be twins. But Piper was quick to brush that theory off, as she was fairly sure she’d know if she had a twin sister; they say everyone has a double out there _somewhere_.

Piper noted that Perry didn’t seem to be very happily-adjusted to being a princess at all – she’d despaired at the mention of how much responsibility it must have meant, and when she’d introduced Piper to _Ursula_ and _Dr. Ogre_ , or looked at Piper’s Heliscooter parked on the balcony… Suffice to say Piper grew more concerned about Perry’s need to get out more.

But still, this was a brilliant opportunity for Piper to learn more about Terra Klockstoppia. When Perry had introduced her double to hamster-powered technology, Piper was surprised to learn that crystals were forbidden on Klockstoppia; so heavily so that the terra’s Regent – a man whom Piper had quickly learned to disdain when he’d come in, and ordered Perry about more like a schoolgirl than his princess, whilst Piper had been hiding out of sight – wouldn’t even let Perry speak of them.

Piper had been recounting some of her own adventures as a Storm Hawk to Perry, who’d listened with amazement; when suddenly, Piper’s royal lookalike had caught her by surprise and knocked her out with a book to the head. When Piper had woken up, she was in the princess’s clothes, with both Perry and her Heliscooter gone, as the Regent and two apparent princess’s-maids entered. And none of them would believe her when she insisted that she wasn’t the princess and that the real Princess Perry was out there now with her Heliscooter…

But all while this was happening; a dark, crawling figure had crept down into the cave tunnels underneath the castle; drawn by the aura, the _scent_ of crystals, like a wolf to the smell of fresh blood. And when the castle guards stationed down there had seen and caught it, the creature had surrendered with a conniving smirk on its dark face.

* * *

Night had fallen outside when the Regent finally came trotting down to the dungeons to see their new prisoner. His nose was held cartoonishly high as one guard at the cell door let him through, and the two guards parted; to reveal the intruder manacled to the wall by its wrists. The figure was dressed entirely in black from head to toe, as though it had simply been born from the black of night itself. The only distinguishing feature that could easily be picked out as it raised its head, was the piercing red glow of two eyes under its hood.

“Outsiders are not welcome,” the Regent said to the figure, in a tone like he were speaking to a rebellious child. “What is your business here?”

“I have come for your crystals,” the figure hissed in a whispery voice; a hint of vehemence entered its tone and glowing eyes at the very last word.

“ _Well_ ,” the Regent drawled out like he were now addressing a mentally-retarded imbecile, his snooty nose held higher than ever, “you’re wasting your time. We don’t use crystals here. They are forbidden!”

“But, you do _have them_ ,” the hooded figure noted matter-of-factly. Its whispery voice contained a hint of a wicked warning for what was to come, as it grew bolder. “You just don’t _use_ them. Such a _shame_ …”

“Oh?” the Regent snorted insultingly. “And why is _that_ , _pray tell_?”

“Because now I know…” the creature murmured. Then its glowing red eyes and the features of its mouth lit up with a malicious glee as it abruptly hissed: “… _your kingdom is defenceless_!” Faster than either the Regent or the guards could do anything more than recoil pitifully, four thin red beams lased down from the figure’s right claw onto the manacle holding its wrist.

Less than two seconds later, the dark figure was hurling the chains off of its body furiously, then whipping out two individually-coloured crystals into either hand as it stood in the middle of the dungeon. With a fluid fist motion, the figure immediately sent the first guard flying backwards in a powerful violet flash, to slam into the wall and slide down, unconscious. The creature whirled round on the second guard who had meant to strike it from behind, meeting the guard’s attack with the other crystal. Time seemed to dilate for both the guard and the Regent in the room, as the crystal’s red flash threw them backwards in slow-motion.

The dark figure was out the dungeon door within an instant, and less than two seconds after it had spied the closed wooden hatch up ahead; it was bursting through it, and scuttling away fast like something out of a child’s nightmare.

“To the castle wall!” the Regent ordered as he and the guards were recovering. “ _Get him_!”

The two royal guards immediately rushed down the way that the prisoner had escaped through. And they quickly found themselves bursting out onto an open balcony, looking over the edge for any sign of where the creature had gone. Had they just looked over their shoulders, they would have noticed the black figure clinging to the grey wall like a spider, before it leapt away.

A harsh whirring sound had both the guards turning around, just in time to see the black creature come zooming straight for them on an equally-black two-wheel land-vehicle. Both the men had no qualms against leaping out of the creature’s way as it reared up its bike-ride, and smashed through the stone balcony’s ledge into the open air. Before the black creature could fall to its death below, its land-ride reconfigured; not below it but _around_ it, forming a pair of large black wings across the rider’s back and arms, before it went hurtling on a red streak of propulsion out into the open clouds.

The chief Nightcrawler spared one look back over his shoulder at the terra now behind him, and chuckled wickedly to himself at the news he had to bring back to his brothers…

He and his kind had been hiding away for too long, scrounging on their home terra since the last time they were called upon. But now their time had come again; they were answering their new Master’s call to arms.

The Nightcrawler was upon the lifeless rock where his brothers waited within the hour; his dark brethren gathered below, watching him as he flew overhead and came in for a landing. The chief’s flying-gear shifted back to its bike-mode as he landed and braked to a halt.

“Master Cyclonis speaks true,” he spoke to his attentive brothers, who were only distinguishable from him by the violet glow of their eyes and their slightly less-decorative armour plating. “Many crystals here. We move!”

A second later, the Nightcrawlers’ black rides were all riding out off the rock to the skies, kicking up dust behind them before their rides shifted. A second later, several winged black forms were flying out on the night air, headed straight towards Terra Klockstoppia looming visible in the distance.

* * *

Meanwhile, Perry’s one day of adventure as a Storm Hawk wasn’t going so well for her. It turned out she – or rather Piper – did a lot more around the _Condor_ (as Piper had called the strange vessel) than she’d thought. When the _Condor_ had lost power after Perry hadn’t recharged the crystals as Piper apparently did, the strange green helmsman had only just managed to save them from plummeting to a violent end below the clouds.

“As long as we don’t move, the _Condor_ has JUST enough power to stay afloat… _for now_ ,” Stork reported gravely from at the helm; stressing the _just_ part as he shot a glare out of one eye. No-one else looked impressed either as they all turned their heads at Perry walking in; she was only able to give a nervous chuckle at all of their furrow-browed expressions.

“Right now, I miss the old, hardworking Piper over the dodge-responsibility one,” Finn said sternly; in a very different tone from when he’d been happily cheering ‘Piper’ earlier for having fun over doing work, and Perry’s eyes dropped to the floor guiltily.

“We need lots of crystals and fast, or we’re going down for good!” Aerrow spoke up to the crew. Then, looking in ‘Piper’s’ direction: “Any ideas?”

Perry sighed defeatedly to herself, seeming to physically deflate in front of everyone. This had gotten way out of hand real fast. “I know a place,” she said simply. Everyone on the bridge fixed their narrowed gazes on her. “It’s called Terra Klockstoppia.”

“Um… what’s the point?” Stork questioned, looking out the corner of his eye back over the ship’s instruments. “We don’t have the power to fly there…”

“I have a way,” Perry said, then winced as she continued: “…but it’s kinda old-fashioned.”

About fifteen minutes later, the _Condor_ was flying on fans freshly-installed over the thrusters, which Aerrow, Finn and Junko were all powering by running a giant hamster-wheel in the Skimmer bay.

“Pretty low tech…” Aerrow murmured, plainly and simply surprised, to ‘Piper’ who stood nearby; “but it works.”

“Nobody says a word about this,” Finn said to the other guys he was running the wheel with. “ _Ever_.”

But it was as ‘Piper’ was walking about the bay whilst the guys continued running the wheel, that Aerrow spotted a big purple mark on her arm while her back was to him.

“You should check that bump on your arm,” he immediately pointed.

The girl instantly covered it up instinctively as she turned round on them. “That’s not a bump, it’s the Royal Crest of Klockstoppia; I was born with it!” Within the second she’d spoken, Stork at the giant wheel’s console and the guys who were running it, all gave ‘Piper’ cocked-eyebrow looks; their brows gradually falling further down over their eyes, whilst Perry cringed as she immediately realised her mistake.

“ _Okay_ … I have a confession to make,” she admitted weakly.

“ _I knew it_!” Stork pointed his finger dramatically. “An _imposter_!” That seemed to set something off as the other three guys were immediately in front of Perry, pointing fingers and angrily asking her:

“Where’s Piper?”

“What did you do with her?!”

Though everyone’s attention was instantly brought back to the task at hand as the ship immediately began to dip.

“Uh, guys, _losing altitude here_!” Stork exclaimed frantically from at the console.

A second later, the ship was afloat again as Aerrow, Finn and Junko were back on the wheel, though their angry eyes never left Perry.

“Don’t worry, Piper’s totally safe!” she honestly tried to assure them.

* * *

“Well, it’s been swell,” Piper sighed contentedly as she threw another grape into her mouth; “but I’ve _got_ to find a two-way radio.” Piper was just dashing for the door, leaving the two maids holding her food trays to exchange confused looks; when the whole castle tower shuddered violently around her. A second later, the snooty figure of the Regent came bursting in through the door in front of Piper.

“I regret to inform Your Highness that we are under attack!” he said in a very constrained, monotone voice.

A moment later, Piper was running out onto the bedroom’s open balcony, and gasped at the sight she saw below her – dozens of pure-black figures flying about the castle towers like twisted bats; firing volleys of energy shots down on the hapless castle guards, or even coming in to directly engage with them.

“ _Nightcrawlers_!” she exclaimed with disgust, instantly recognising the creatures as they sent more guards running for their lives or falling over the castle walls to their deaths. One particular Nightcrawler riding in its gear’s ground-mode, shot a forked tether straight for the balcony where Piper was standing. The end caught right on the balcony edge, and the dark creature instantly began riding up fast along the wall. Piper immediately ran back into the bedroom for the golden trophy which the Regent had brought the _real_ Perry earlier; then as she ran back onto the balcony, with a loud yell, Piper used the instrument’s sharp edge to cut the tether-rope in two. The Nightcrawler’s bike-ride instantly went falling away from the wall, but shifted into its wings-mode in the air, and the creature went flying away to rejoin its comrades in the fray.

Piper immediately rounded to face the Regent, who’d walked up behind her on the balcony. “They’re an elite Cyclonian goon squad that answers only to Master Cyclonis herself!” Piper stressed.

“And would _this_ be Master Cyclonis?” the Regent practically _snarled_ back angrily, holding up the ogre-puppet that Perry had been playing with earlier.

“No, that’s _Dr. Ogre_!” Piper growled back furiously – remembering the puppet’s name just a second before she realised she was going native disturbingly fast – her teeth gritted at the Regent’s blatant refusal to listen. “But that’s not the point!” Piper immediately brushed the Regent (and Dr. Ogre) aside as she took one of the weapons off the guards standing further back, and checked its ammo. She gaped dumbstruck at the citrus orbs that rolled out of the cartridge to the floor.

“You’re gonna stop them with oranges?!” Piper exclaimed in disbelief.

“Obviously, _you’ve_ never taken citrus to the eye!” the Regent snapped, pointing a finger to his wide right eye. Piper just rolled her own eyes in disgust.

“These guards will protect you,” the Regent declared smarmily. “Now I must leave to take command of the battle!” As the Regent turned up his nose and strutted past her back inside, Piper finally decided that she’d had just about enough of this.

“No!” she declared defiantly, stopping the Regent in his tracks. “ _I’m_ taking command!”

The Regent gave her an ugly, derisive look out of the corner of his eye as he half-turned back around to her. “ _Plllease_ , Your Highness!” he snarled disdainfully.

“Who’s the real ruler of Klockstoppia?” Piper challenged, not backing down in the least. “ _You_ , or the Princess- er… _me_?”

The Regent stumbled over himself on the spot. “W-Well… legally, _you_ are, but…”

Piper didn’t let him finish. “Then _I’m_ taking charge,” she declared finally. “And my first command is to find crystals to defend us.”

“But, Your Highness…!” the Regent spluttered as Piper walked right past him towards the door out. “They’re forbidden!”

“And I now declare them _un_ -forbidden!” Piper shot over her shoulder at the Regent as she walked out, making sure to slam the door quite loudly behind her, before she went walking away down the castle’s long corridors and winding staircases. She knew that there were crystals on this terra, Perry had told her there was a whole cave full of deposits no more than a hundred yards from the castle; all they needed were the right crystals to deal with these creatures.

Piper had been surprised to say the least to see Nightcrawlers in the flesh – they hadn’t been seen in over ten years, not since the original Storm Hawks had driven them back before the squadron’s fateful charge on Cyclonia. Though Piper wasn’t that worried about the creatures; Nightcrawlers’ armour and weapons were strong in the dark, but they were very weak to bright light.

Still, there was the possibility that Piper wouldn’t find what they needed on Klockstoppia – Solaris Crystals were relatively common, but they didn’t exactly grow like weeds. And Piper thought, rather she _worried_ , that she’d actually have to turn to _someone else_ for help saving Klockstoppia from the Nightcrawlers if her current plan didn’t work out…

As she left the castle grounds and made her way down the steep paths near the terra’s edges, Piper found she’d been right not to trust the Regent to obey her order, as she heard his high voice calling from above the precipice: “ _There she is_!”

Running on, Piper spied the cave mouth ahead in the ravine below her, the familiar soft glow of crystals shining from within… and the unmoving forms of two guards lying sprawled across the rocks. An involuntary gasp escaped Piper’s chest as she was unsure whether they were alive or dead. But that momentary distraction was all it took, as at that very moment, a few Nightcrawlers came stalking out of the cave mouth. The one member who wasn’t wheeling a barrow full of crystals, notable by his red eyes; spotted Piper immediately and trained a wrist-mounted crossbow on her, cackling. Piper could only raise her hands above her head as the lead Nightcrawler held her in his sights, her eyes wide with fear.

“You will not stop us,” the Nightcrawler hissed coldly at her, whilst more of his brethren came wheeling crystals out of the cave behind him; dumping the loot in a pile together nearby.

“ _Psst, princess_ ,” a whispering voice had Piper turning her eyes, to see the Regent crouched behind a nearby rock, signalling her. “ _Duck!_ ” A second later, two guards poked out from behind an adjacent rock to fire two weapons’ worth of ammo past Piper’s head at her captor. The first several shots sailed right past the Nightcrawler’s shoulders, before he casually caught the last orange right in his hand with a triumphant laugh.

The Regent and the guards could only stare bug-eyed like rabbits caught in the headlights, while Piper put a hand to her forehead with a loud, miserable groan.

A few minutes later, Piper, the Regent and the two guards were all being held at gunpoint by three Nightcrawlers. Whilst the Regent remained rather wide-eyed with fear for his life next to her, Piper sighed miserably to herself as it looked like she were out of options. She really didn’t want to have to do this, but Nightcrawlers were known to be _thorough_ about cleaning up after themselves; the chances they would leave everyone on this terra alive were close to nought. So after only a moment of hesitation out of dread, Piper calmly closed her eyes and focused, looking into herself…

_She was rocketed along the tether-line that was the bond; whirring and blurring colours flashed by all around her, and for a moment, Piper wondered if this was what Smaug had experienced when he’d gone into her mind. Then, surprisingly faster than she had been expecting, Piper was propelled out to the other end of the bond. The giant reptilian eye snapped open, instantly alert to her presence._

_Smaug said nothing as his fiery yellow eye, dominating the vision in Piper’s head, simply narrowed on her suspiciously; the scaly brow above it furrowed very distrustfully._

_“Smaug,” Piper spoke the dragon’s name directly to him, still unable to keep the slight hint of venom out of her voice. But then she said to him: “I need you to listen to me, I don’t have a lot of time to explain.” Smaug’s brow simply rose higher above his eye, the only sign of his surprise._

_“Oh?” the dragon’s booming voice, which sounded like it were coming from everywhere in this mindscape, questioned in a dark tone._

_“I’m on a terra, which is being ransacked by Nightcrawlers_ right now _, and if_ someone _doesn’t help, they’ll kill everyone there!”_

_“Oh, really?” Smaug crooned derisively, about as moved as a lord who’d heard one of his servants was dead and had been replaced with a more-effective one just as fast. “Well now, that is a pity…” he murmured heartlessly, reminding Piper with an angry lick of emotion what it was about his blatant destructiveness that disgusted her so._

_“Smaug, I need… your…_ help! _” Piper pleaded vehemently, hoping that playing to Smaug’s ego would stoke him into it. Though the dragon’s eye shone with sadistic amusement at seeing Piper actually_ beg _him, he clearly still wasn’t going to move himself an inch to save any people._

 _“Ah, but help is such a rare, precious thing to ask for in these times,” Smaug purred smugly, enjoying this very much. “What proof do you have to show me that this isn’t some sordid scheme you’ve cooked up,_ hmm _?!” Smaug growled, his giant eye’s slit-pupil narrowed on Piper very dangerously as his mood quickly swung closer to murderously foul. “Tell me, is this some elaborate trap of yours, to finally have the dragon caught and at your mercy, like a poacher triumphant over his butchered prey?!”_

 _“_ No, it’s not! _” Piper exploded furiously, her patience at an end; even as Smaug’s blazing eye_ dared _her to lie to him. “Smaug, you’re the only hope I have left of saving this terra, no-one else can do it. If you give me your_ word _you won’t harm_ anyone _on that terra,_ now or ever _-” Smaug immediately bristled in anger at the mere_ notion _of him giving her such a thing as she was unworthy of! But before his anger could detonate, Piper lowered her own metaphorically-fiery gaze, and surprisingly hung her head defeatedly in the vision. “-then you can have me, without a fight.”_

 _Smaug’s eye widened in surprise, all his initial thoughts coming to a standstill, as his brain whirred over and processed this new information. She would give herself up and let him take her willingly for this? Smaug was loath to give his word to anyone at all, let alone a pathetic mortal, for a dragon’s oath, when given, was considered_ sacred _. But the thought of what he would have, the thought of having the strong-spirited Piper willingly_ surrender _herself and all the power she had to offer, over to him… Smaug’s mind was whirring with relishable thoughts at such a thing._

_Then it occurred to Smaug that this might well be too good to be true; what guarantee did he have that Piper wouldn’t just turn her back on such an agreement or trick him into a ploy, as her kind were known to do when it best suited them? Smaug trained his piercing fiery gaze directly back onto Piper’s consciousness, intending to demand something in return._

_As she looked back up, with the fight in her eyes having seemingly given way to despair, Piper was actually half-fearing, quite-greatly_ not _fearing; that Smaug wouldn’t take the bargain, as he simply calculated in front of her consciousness._

 _“Hmm, you do make a_ very tempting _offer,” Smaug crooned wickedly. “Very well,_ Piper _… I will give you my assistance in cleaning this ugly little rock of yours of its infestation, but in return I want something more_ reliable _from_ you _…”_

 _Piper looked up surprised, into Smaug’s glowing eye that loomed very large before her in the mindscape. “You will give me_ your _word that you will surrender yourself over to me for this. And if there are any unpleasant surprises waiting for me on the terra, or if you try_ and weasel your way out of this _, then the deal is off and I burn the entire terra to ash and rock!”_

_Piper looked shocked, with a mix of despair, up into Smaug’s fiery eye. Could she really also forfeit all chance she had, however slim, of finding any way out of this? But suddenly, she was vaguely aware of the sounds of the Nightcrawlers hissing threateningly, brushing through from the real world to her consciousness in this mental state, and Piper became aware that she was running out of time to decide._

_“I swear to it,” she said, metaphorically sagging as though with that, she had just deflated the life out of herself. She met Smaug’s gaze, with renewed vigour this time as she fiercely demanded: “Now give me_ yours _.”_

 _A slight growl of dissatisfaction rumbled out between Smaug’s teeth._ Damn _. He’d hoped that he could slip his way out of that, evade actually saying the binding words to her. Mortals’ attention- and memory-spans were so fleetingly limited after all._

_“I swear by my honour as a fire-drake that I shall not bring death upon any of the mortal peoples of this terra,” Smaug spoke the words after only a moment’s hesitation. So that officially settled it. “Now, if you’d care to tell me where I shall find this curious place of yours…”_

_Piper instantly projected the image and the coordinates of her whereabouts through into Smaug’s mind, adding in features and general location to ensure he knew how to get there directly._

_“Hmm, now that_ is _a surprise…” Piper was surprised to hear Smaug’s voice murmur aloud to himself, at something he had found out. His huge fiery eye turned its attention back onto Piper as he spoke directly to her: “I’m not a very far flight away; I should be with you in the hour.”_

_Then, with that, Smaug’s mind immediately began pulling out of his unconscious back to his body, while Piper’s own mind was ejected, hurtling back along the length of the bond towards her own form._

“Regent?!” Piper heard a surprisingly familiar voice as soon as she opened her eyes back to the real world; on Terra Klockstoppia, being held hostage by Nightcrawlers. Piper looked up to where the voice had come from, to see a figure identical to herself in her usual clothing, standing atop a cliff-ledge overlooking the whole scene. She instantly knew it was Perry.

“Um… Princess?” the Regent standing next to Piper, turned round as well at the sound, his voice soft as he was thoroughly confused. Another second later, Aerrow and Junko came into view on either side of Perry and were jumping down into battle-poses on the rocks, while Finn and Radarr were already standing ready at the top of the rock ledge.

“ _Storm Hawks_!” the lead Nightcrawler growled at the sight of them, immediately firing several red energy-bolts from his wrist-mounted weapon. Aerrow leapt to dodge each shot as the Nightcrawler’s comrades joined in firing, whilst Finn took cover behind a rock just large enough for him.

“Aw, man, we drained our blasters to save the _Condor_!” Finn groaned loudly from his cover as his crossbow just failed to fire.

“Then we go old-school!” Aerrow declared. “Hand-to-hand!” A moment later, Aerrow was leaping out of his cover directly into the fray, bringing the nearest Nightcrawler down with a well-placed kick to the chest; while Finn went into a kickboxing-position against another Nightcrawler, then dodged and took it down with a swipe-kick that brought its feet out from underneath it. Meanwhile, Perry and Piper went back-to-back, but overall the Nightcrawlers seemed to stay clear of them – seemingly more interested in dealing with the men with fists than a couple unarmed girls.

“Sorry I got you into this, Piper,” Perry apologised regretfully over her shoulder to her double.

“Be sorry later!” Piper exclaimed back at the other girl.

As the lead Nightcrawler looked on, the Storm Hawks had three of his brothers down. Aerrow was engaging one in hand-to-hand combat; Radarr had another pinned to the floor as he savagely bit at its armour; while Junko was actually dangling another upside-down by the ankles, like a scene from a children’s playground.

The lead Nightcrawler let out a hoarse chuckle at the Storm Hawks’ foolishness, for he had them all in one place; then he threw a red crystal straight at them. The moment the humming crystal landed right at Aerrow’s feet, the boy Sky Knight had a split-second to register it before it exploded with a violent red flash. Aerrow, Radarr and Junko were all sent careening backwards in slow-motion, one of the Nightcrawlers they’d been on pushing through the slo-mo in a predatory pounce. As soon as their momentum took them breaking free of the time dilation, the pouncing Nightcrawler had Aerrow pinned against a rock wall. Whilst a few feet away, the lead Nightcrawler and two others had their weapons all trained on Radarr, who was lying weakly sprawled on a rock.

The red-eyed Nightcrawler chuckled triumphantly down at them. “ _Night wins_ ,” he hissed.

“Not yet it doesn’t!” A voice had the Nightcrawler turning to see Piper standing right at the cave-mouth, scowling; two identical yellow crystals in hand as she raised them above her head. As Piper brought the Solaris Crystals clashing together, a brilliant yellow flash like the sun had just erupted upon the land shone out to bathe the whole ravine. The Nightcrawlers immediately all cringed away almost painfully from the bright light, as Perry and the other Storm Hawks all watched on. The lead Nightcrawler in particular gave an enraged groan after a total of three seconds bearing the light.

“ _Stop her_!” he called to one of his subordinates. One of the Nightcrawlers further away from the light immediately fired its weapon at Piper, the red bolt instantly knocking the shining light crystals square out of her hands. The lead Nightcrawler didn’t even register the less-than-distressed expression on Piper’s face as he walked up to her, chuckling. His fellows, meanwhile, immediately resumed their grips on the Storm Hawks they’d defeated, though most pairs of eyes remained fixed on Piper.

The lead Nightcrawler swiftly pinned Piper against the cave wall behind her like lifting a doll off the floor, his red-eyed faced sneering up at her as he tightened his grip around her throat.

“Piper!” Aerrow struggled against the Nightcrawler holding him, as did Radarr as the animal Storm Hawk shrieked furiously; but they were both helpless to do anything as the leader held Piper in his choking grip.

“ _You thought to defeat us that easily_?” the red-eyed Nightcrawler hissed tauntingly up into Piper’s face, an arm’s length from his own. At that very moment, a slight hot wind rolled over the landscape, kicking up dust; bringing the entire battle-site to an utter standstill. In the immediate silence that followed, an indecipherable sound struggled and failed to get out through Piper’s obstructed throat.

“ _What_?” the lead Nightcrawler hissed as he relaxed his hold, his red eyes now wide under his hood with worry at the disturbance.

“It wasn’t meant to stop you, it was just meant to buy more time until _he_ gets here,” Piper growled down at him.

“ _Who is this Storm Hawk ally_?” the lead Nightcrawler hissed, scowling now.

“He’s not someone any Storm Hawks or Sky Knights would call an ally,” Piper murmured back to the lead Nightcrawler, who was now looking round for the source of the disturbance. A split second after Piper’s statement, a large, dark shadow passed over the ravine with unnatural swiftness, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. Every pair of eyes that were Storm Hawk, Nightcrawler and Klockstoppia-native looked up; the lead Nightcrawler’s red eyes immediately widened with shock and fear.

Flying high above, Smaug unleashed an earth-shattering roar which shook the ravine, his golden eyes shining bright in the night. All mortals immediately shielded their ears painfully against the sound, although the Nightcrawlers handled it better than the humans. The roar was the only warning that was given, before Smaug suddenly dived, tucking in his wings. The Nightcrawlers all instantly turned their attention to firing at the incoming dragon, whilst the pinned Storm Hawks could only stare up in utter dread. The Nightcrawlers’ energy projectiles harmlessly bounced away against Smaug’s scales as the dragon snapped open his wings to glide low over the ravine with incredible speed, hind-claws splayed and glinting.

Swifter than an eagle, Smaug had picked up three Nightcrawlers and thrown them to the air, before landing with a forward-run through the ravine. Growling in rage, the lead Nightcrawler threw Piper aside to the ground, as he focused all his attention on firing at the dragon’s bloodred hide. Smaug ignored the leader’s futile shots for the moment, his attention still on the three Nightcrawlers he’d thrown to the air. He twisted his neck and unleashed a torrent of night-lighting fire from his jaws. The rush of flames immediately caught the Nightcrawlers in the air, the dark creatures screaming as they were swiftly vapourised in the molten torrent.

 _Now_ Smaug turned his attention to the lead Nightcrawler with a savage growl, as the red-eyed one continued angrily firing on him. Twisting round in a flurry of scales and wing-membrane, Smaug whipped his massive tail at the lead Nightcrawler; swatting the dark creature to send it hurtling with a loud cry, crashing square into its remaining comrades nearby with devastating momentum. As Smaug twisted his large body round again in the ravine, the shining light underneath his scales was already travelling fast from his chest up his long neck again; to his savagely-grinning mouth, as he leered down at the remaining Nightcrawlers. The leader didn’t need a moment longer to make his strategic decision.

“Retreat, retreat!” he yelled to his brothers that he’d fallen on, they getting up and sprinting off with their leader in the opposite direction from the dragon. Smaug unleashed another bellyful of dragonfire after the fleeing creatures as all the mortals took cover to avoid the searing heat. The little black figures of the Nightcrawlers just escaped the fiery blaze as their silhouettes morphed into winged ones and they took to the sky, flying away. Smaug initially rushed across the ravine to see them off, smirking cruelly at how easy this had been.

Behind where the huge dragon was seeing the last of the Nightcrawlers fly away, the mortals were already picking themselves up off the ground, a silence hanging over them as they did so. But as Aerrow in particular got up, his gaze met with Piper’s, who was lying across the ravine from him, against the cave wall. Confusion, disbelief and betrayal were evident in the Sky Knight’s green eyes as Piper’s met them, and no words were needed to express Aerrow’s meaning: _What have you done?_

It was at that very moment that Smaug turned his attention back to the mortals who were left in the ravine, twisting round to look at them. He spied all of the Storm Hawks save the green-skinned cretin down there, and – _two_ Pipers? Smaug’s eyes immediately looked in surprise back to the first one he’d seen, after he noticed the second one. What was this, some trick of crystal-sorcery? Highly unlikely, Smaug deduced as quickly as he’d seen it, for there was no potent energy in the air. Perhaps a twin sister; possible, though he’d never received any indication that Piper had such a relative. Perhaps a simple case of genetic lookalikes; it was rare but hardly unheard of in any species. Yes, that seemed the more likely explanation.

As Smaug’s fiery gaze looked over the two Piper’s, he could instantly tell from the hum in the air when he was this close to Piper, which one was the real Piper that shared the tethering link with him. When Smaug did identify the real Piper, his yellow eyes had to widen in his skull at seeing which one it was; between the girl in Piper’s usual clothes, and the girl in a rather comically-archetypical princess dress and tiara. A long pause passed. Then a low, rumbling growling-sound began emerging in intervals from Smaug’s chest, a series of booms rolling over the landscape. The dragon tossed back his head on his long neck and opened his jaws to the skies in a loud, uncontrollable growling laugh.

The mortals in the ravine simply gawked, bewildered at this display, all of them at a near-total loss for how to react to this. Smaug could hardly believe it! The human girl that he valued irreplaceably was finally his to take, here; and _this_ was how he found her, dressed like a princess ready to be carried off by the dragon to its keep?! Whatever supernatural powers mortals’ lore and myth regarded as fate _surely_ had to be playing some joke on him, Smaug thought; brushing a single nonexistent tear of laughter from the side of his scaly head with a fore-claw. But once the dragon’s earth-vibrating laughter had finally died down, he turned his immediate attention onto the several humans gathered in the ravine before him.

“I must say, Piper, your new attire is in surprisingly _good tastes_ for the occasion,” Smaug had to comment mirthfully, grinning. “Though surely you must be somewhat cold in that?”

“A _dragon_?” the false Piper breathed, her eyes wide in pure awe as she stared surprisingly fearlessly up at the huge reptilian fire-breather; whilst Smaug only regarded her with a flitting, momentary glance upon the girl. “ _Cool_ …”

“Not cool,” Finn countered softly from where he stood, clutching his side; his brows knitted low over his blue eyes as his serious gaze remained fixed on Smaug. But Smaug had little attention for the Storm Hawks’ stormy stares, turning his bright fiery eyes directly back onto Piper.

“I’ve fulfilled _my_ part of our bargain, dear Piper,” Smaug purred tauntingly down at her, bringing his huge head in a little closer to her on his long neck. “Now it’s _your_ turn!”

“ _Bargain_?!” Finn exclaimed, equal parts stupefied and aghast with horror.

“What’s going on?!” Aerrow growled courageously up at Smaug, demanding an explanation. The huge dragon whirled his gaze off of Piper to give Aerrow a dangerous look accompanied by a threatening growl, for the boy’s audacious disrespect.

“Be careful, _Aerrow_ ,” Smaug growled in warning at him, though he spoke in a tone as if this were just a trivial, irrelevant matter to be quickly dealt with. “Piper and I came to the terms that I end no life native to this terra – I didn’t say anything about _your life_!” Indeed, the Storm Hawks’ betrayed and miserable feelings that would ensue over what one of their own had just done, were probably the only real reason Smaug intended to leave them alive this day, finding it too delicious to not relish in.

Aerrow’s gaze shifted over to the girl who stood off to the side from where Smaug’s huge head hung low above the ground. As the boy Sky Knight’s face silently pleaded with Piper for answers, she lowered her head as if in great shame.

“I traded myself for the lives of everyone on Klockstoppia,” Piper confessed.

“WHAT?!” Junko exclaimed, utterly distressed. Finn, Aerrow and Radarr seemed to have a great deal of trouble accepting this as well. Several seconds must have passed as Aerrow gaped, distressed, between his best friend and the dragon; his expression torn as he struggled to understand.

“But, Piper, _why_?” was all Aerrow could say to her. Piper’s amber eyes held Aerrow’s in that moment, her expression desperate, imploring Aerrow to understand. Then Smaug’s cruel voice cut in on them.

“Come now, let’s not be so quick to tears, _Sir Aerrow_ ,” the great dragon spat out the title of knighthood mockingly as he viciously taunted the boy. “With me, she will have a home and guardian to keep her who takes _much better care_ of his valuables than a canting rabble!” That immediately set something off in Aerrow as, gritting his teeth, he immediately whirled his gaze back onto Smaug, a shocking rebellious fire burning in his green eyes.

“You can’t do this!” Aerrow growled up at the dragon through his teeth in fury, unlike Piper had ever seen him before.

“Oh, I have the word of a Storm Hawk that says I can.” Smaug sneered back down at Aerrow viciously, not taking him seriously in the least, before he turned his glowing gaze onto Piper. “Isn’t that right, _Piper_?”

“…I did,” Piper said softly after a moment’s pause.

“Piper, you can’t be _serious_ about this!” Finn all but yelled in horror. Whilst Perry just looked with a building sense of unease between everyone mortal and dragon present, not familiar with what was going on here.

“Guys, it’s _done_!” Piper snapped angrily, her face pinched into a scowl as she faced them all. “ _I_ did it, and there’s no going back on it!”

“Well then, now that we have the separation debates out of the way,” Smaug suddenly crooned in that rich yet cruel voice of his, turning his gaze back onto the girl who was right below the tip of his muzzle; “perhaps you should say your goodbyes to your friends, and we’ll shove off.” Smaug stopped with his head remaining that close to Piper, as though waiting for her to do just that. Piper simply gave an apologetic look back at her friends that lasted several seconds. Then Smaug opened his crocodilian jaws, and ever-gently locked the sharp-toothed gums over Piper’s torso on either side, picking her up in his mouth. Her eyes met Aerrow’s and she simply mouthed two words:

_I’m sorry._

Then Smaug twisted his body and started climbing on all fours up the rocky precipice, out of the ravine.

“ _Piper_!” Aerrow rushed forward, one hand outstretched as if he could stop this and save her, but it was too late. The end of Smaug’s tail disappeared over the ravine lip. About five seconds later, Smaug’s dark form was visible to those in the ravine again; flying away in the night sky, a silhouette rapidly shrinking as he flew further away. Though the dragon’s beaming fiery yellow eye was piercing as he twisted his neck, sparing a look back at the Storm Hawks left in the ravine. Though they couldn’t see it, the corners of the dragon’s slightly-ajar mouth were pulled into a nasty grin on his reptilian face. As Terra Klockstoppia was left behind by the dragon and the princess-girl held in his jaws, the huge creature’s dark shape on the blue night sky grew ever smaller from the view within the ravine.

For a very long moment, total silence hung over everyone in the ravine, no-one saying anything, just staring up to where Smaug and Piper were vanishing. Junko was the first one to speak, breaking the silence to say:

“Aerrow… What do we do now?”

Aerrow didn’t turn around to face his squadron, as his green eyes stared off after where Piper had been taken away. Slowly, the stormiest expression ever came over his face, his hands clenching into tight fists at his sides.

“ _We get her back_ ,” he declared vehemently, turning back to face his squadron. Whatever had happened, Aerrow would get Piper back from Smaug. Even if it was the last thing he ever did.


	11. The Dragon's Captive

The two had flown through the night, and through the next day past sunset, with the sun rising and falling through the sky; before they were upon the craggy, mist-coated valley where Smaug made his home. The place looked foreboding and murky in the dark of night, as the huge bloodred dragon swooped towards the centre of the valley. Piper, held delicately between the creature’s jaws; remained as silent as she’d been throughout the entire journey to here, limp as though all the life had gone out of her. Though Piper had kept track by direction and reference points of exactly where she and Smaug were going – and she knew that they were very far from any inhabited places or trader-ships’ routes here. She had to admit, Smaug had chosen his lair well.

Flying towards a particular large crag at the centre of the jagged valley, Smaug came in for a landing; running forward on his hind-legs before coming to a stop on all fours. He slinked into the dark cave of his lair, carrying Piper in his jaws.

The tunnel space was a slight squeeze for Smaug, albeit one he’d seemingly grow accustomed to; before he and Piper came out into a dazzling, gold-bathed cavern. Piper took a moment to gape at the sight all around her, her mouth falling open in a silent _whoa_. The cave was more than big enough to comfortably accommodate Smaug, and it had piles of crystals, jewels and gold lining the walls and scattered on the floor in thin layers. Before Piper could look round any further, Smaug stalked towards the cavern wall; raising his head and putting Piper down on a high ledge that put her on level with the upward-pointed tips of Smaug’s folded wings. She had no immediate way down save by climbing.

Not two seconds later, Smaug turned away from Piper, to start sifting and picking through the mounds of treasure around the cavern; taking all the crystals he found amongst the gold, and gathering it into an exclusive pile against the cave wall. Piper quickly caught on to what Smaug was doing as she watched – he was putting all the crystals in his hoard where she couldn’t get to any of them to use them against him. Once Smaug had seemingly finished his work, he lay his huge serpentine body down in front of the pile like a barrier; enclosing it between him and the wall. Piper saw that he was furthermore positioned close enough to the cave exit that no human in the cavern could hope to slip or squeeze past him, his great size forming a barrier whilst the top part of the exit just poked above him. Looking the guarded crystal mound over, Piper took note of how many various, incredibly-rare crystals there were in the huge pile that rose above Smaug’s protective body; and Piper felt a stab of guilt on the inside as she remembered what had happened to Gundstaff’s terra.

Piper had actually been wondering if Smaug was going to just leave her up here on the wall ledge; like some special treasure held high above all others, she mentally noted with disgust. But then, the end of Smaug’s long tail came curling around Piper’s waist tendril-like, and carried her towards where the huge dragon lay around his protected crystals. Smaug looked ready for sleep, with his huge wing membranes folded and the forelimbs’ claws crossed over each-other in front of him; the dragon’s huge crocodilian head resting atop those claws, like a cat ready to drift off. Smaug simply put Piper down between his crossed claws, not three metres away from his large head. A second after he did, one of Smaug’s claws rose, and gently pinned Piper under its huge fingers, sandwiching her between one foreclaw and another. She looked like a doll in Smaug’s grasp, as the dragon lifted his head lazily on his neck to regard her with fiery eyes. Though he was clearly tired, the look Piper saw in Smaug’s eyes as she glared back up at him was a sneering and triumphant look.

“I do apologise that you’re having such a rough start to your new home, _Piper_ ,” Smaug said maliciously, in a tone that was anything but apologetic, as he looked down at her. The dragon’s powerful, resonant voice boomed and reverberated back off the cavern walls in the cavern’s confining space, making it sound like a whole choir of him were all speaking at once. “Let me find a way to make it up to you…”

“And how do you plan to do that?!” Piper spat coldly. Her neck craned in order to look directly up into Smaug’s leering face, looming above her. She honestly didn’t want to know what Smaug’s idea of _making it up to her_ would be.

Smaug had to admit that he was actually _slightly_ impressed rather than enraged, by the gall behind the girl’s audacity; as she glared defiantly back up into Smaug’s eyes, as though they were equals, when most mortals would have been (rather wisely) quailing in fear of him right about now.

“Come now, we’ve both had a rather long journey,” Smaug hissed on softly in a very dark tone, as his eyes shone down on her. “Getting off on the wrong foot is hardly a good way to begin a relationship when you and I will be spending so much time together.”

Piper refused to give Smaug the satisfaction of any further response from her. And once again, the dragon didn’t explode, for he was revelling far too much in at last having the great source of power that he’d craved, here with him. In fact if anything, Smaug _relished_ Piper’s non-responsiveness as he grinned maliciously, raising his head on his long, twisting neck.

“You are now one of the greatest treasures that I possess,” Smaug declared, gesturing with a sweep of his long, uncoiling tail to the treasure-littered cave around them. “I will have you at my side for as long as I desire you, and everything I want of you, _you will give me_!” Smaug’s bright eyes shone with a particularly dark glee as he added: “And I wouldn’t get my hopes up about ever leaving this place if I were you!”

Piper was no longer stubbornly scowling, now she was just looking down miserably, the energy sagging out of her as she thought about her friends; the betrayed looks in their faces, and everything that she had lost when she’d given herself up to Smaug. Though Piper’s head was lowered at such an angle as to try and hide her face from him, Smaug could still sense her change in mood as clear as day through his superior draconic senses.

“I’ll admit that I haven’t given you a very gracious introduction to your new home yet, _Piper_ ,” Smaug purred suavely in his powerful voice, a smirk tugging at his lips as Piper tried to look anywhere but into the dragon’s eyes. “So let me make that up to you by providing you with a _warm hearth_ to sleep on.”

“Can’t I just ask to sleep in the gold?” Piper murmured miserably without looking up at Smaug. Truly, right now, she would rather sleep on the uncomfortable metal than anywhere near this evil being.

“Oh, I’m afraid I’ll have to _insist_ ,” Smaug all but chortled out, craning his huge head so that his large lips were moving inches from Piper’s head. The tone that he spoke the last word in would have made _anyone_ feel terrified to have this dragon as a host.

About a second after he’d spoken, Smaug’s huge body was shifting; the end of his long tail curled tightly around Piper again, he rose slightly on his forelimbs to expose the front of his thickly-built chest. Seeing where she was going as the tail lifted her towards the dull-gold scales, Piper immediately tried to fight, however useless and in vain it was. She didn’t want to go anywhere near there. Piper’s squirming did little other than entertain Smaug. At the moment the exposed flesh of Piper’s upper-back in the pink dress, touched the odd crystal scale on Smaug’s chest; a flash of electrical light instantly blasted out between the two from the contact.

Piper cried out loudly from the painful surge through her body as she and Smaug were joined across the bond; whilst Smaug opened his jaws wide in a roar that shook the cavern walls, feeling the bond’s well of power touching him again. The images of a vision were already flashing by under both the girl and the dragon’s eyelids. The power Smaug felt flowing fast into him was barely able to be contained. He felt like he were what mortals would call a god, like he could tear down the world’s mightiest fortresses, crumble the world’s tallest mountains, boil its vastest oceans to steam!

But after only a few moments of contact, Smaug pulled Piper away in his grasp, the crystal scale’s shine of power instantly fading. Though as Piper was held no further than several feet from the special scale; Smaug was pleasantly surprised to still feel a very gentle, almost hallucinatory buzz of a steady stream, continuing to flow into him from her. Smaug knew that it would do no good for him to be overfeeding on such power before bedtime, and right now he was in need of some rest. As he still felt the steady trickle pleasantly flowing into him, Smaug lay back down in his former sleeping posture, huge head resting no more than five metres away from where Piper remained held in his curled tail.

Whilst Piper herself could only sag in defeat in the dragon’s grasp, feeling the steady power-flow into Smaug continue. No amount of desperate mental force and concentration that she immediately attempted was doing anything to stop it. It wasn’t until Smaug’s breathing had faded to an earthquake-like rumble of a snore; that Piper felt ready to quietly sob her heart out at what she had done.

* * *

Elsewhere in Atmos, things were not going much better for the Storm Hawks, as they pooled over thick layers of charts, maps and papers on the _Condor_ ’s bridge, at the main table. Four days had now passed since Smaug had taken Piper on Klockstoppia, which Aerrow and the remaining guys had spent going through Piper’s research; tracking Smaug’s raids, and sightings of him throughout the Atmos. It was proving difficult for the guys to pick up with Piper’s work where she’d left off, as they mulled round the clock over the papers, trying to find any patterns that they could track Smaug by.

Aerrow banged his fist just a _little_ lightly on the paper-laden table, as he came to another dead-end with the dated maps of Smaug’s attacks. “Finn, do you have anything further on flight patterns?” Aerrow turned to the sharpshooter to ask.

“Nothing so far,” Finn responded instantly, the blonde boy’s tone unusually downcast and completely serious.

Aerrow lowered his head with a bitter sigh, and next turned to Radarr. “Radarr, anything on Piper’s maps, trying to find new or missed patterns?” The ferret-like Storm Hawk looked up from where he was working on the paper-coated table, with compasses in either paw to points on the mapping; to give a sad chirp that matched the emotion of his face’s expression.

Aerrow was quite saddened, and next turned his gaze to Junko, who was on the other side of the table from him. “Junko, any luck with those weather reports?” The poor wallop look positively lost with the statistics he was working on.

“Nu-uh,” Junko groaned back to his leader. “Smaug could have been following this warm front from Terra Andels when he attacked Jorkan two weeks ago. But then he came on Terra Persone in the middle of cyclone season, and he was seen near Terra Blusteria when the weather there was calmest…”

“ _And_ ,” Stork’s voice rang up clear to get everyone’s attention, from where the Merp was manning the ship’s main radio like it was a siren; “you might be interested to know, he was just seen flying southwest at Gyraris.”

“We could try following up on that,” Finn immediately suggested.

“Oh, but with how fast that dragon flies, chances are we’d never catch his trail,” Stork’s voice replied ever-grimly. It was at this point that Aerrow just let out a long, much-needed sigh of bitterness.

“We really could do with Piper here…” the red-haired Sky Knight groaned miserably. The rest of his squadron all just shared looks with each-other, until Finn approached Aerrow.

“Aerrow, we’ll find her,” Finn tried to comfort his leader and friend, but it didn’t sound reassuring. It just sounded awkward, more than anything else. That was another thing that Piper was usually good at, Finn mentally noted with sadness.

* * *

Suzy Lu and the Absolute Zeroes sped fast down the sloping, snow-covered landscape from the dragon that flew fast through the obscuring snowfall behind them. The Blizzaris squadron all just barely missed a roaring bellyful of flame that the dragon sent their way along the ground, the searing heat melting the snow instantaneously. As soon as the Zeroes’ land-rides reached a ledge that curved upwards, they wasted no time in shifting their vehicles into flight mode and taking to the air. They quickly divided and scattered, their rides’ energy-trails blazing behind them, as the huge dragon pumped its wings hard.

Two of Suzy Lu’s girls tried to come upon Smaug on one side, and another plus Billy Rex on the other; firing icy-blue blasts from their weapons ruthlessly upon the dragon’s crimson hide. Smaug just growled with disdain as he looked out of his bright yellow eye at them – a second before, with a whip of his long tail in either direction, all four of the Zeroes’ sky-rides were shattered into metal ribbons; the riders sent falling fifty feet downward, towards the snow.

Suzy Lu looked back over her shoulder, and the Blizzarian’s muzzled face pinched with fear as she saw Smaug’s savage open jaws, closing in on her. In the very moment that the Dragon-Dread was about to catch her with his teeth, Suzy Lu jumped up on her ride, staff in hand; and sent a bright, icy bolt straight into the dragon’s huge, open jaws. Smaug’s whole form almost-instantly lost control; falling through the air as he hissed, gasped and choked wildly on the unpleasant icy bolt down his gullet, glowing eyes bulging in his head, icy vapour trailing from his jaws. He crashed hard into the ground, kicking up an explosion of snow around him.

Suzy Lu momentarily grinned at her victory over the dragon, but it didn’t last long before the creature recovered on the ground; he whirled his fiery gaze back onto her, and unleashed another torrent of fire straight at her. Suzy Lu just managed to swerve her ride to avoid the roaring flames which seared her by a metre.

“Whoa, that was a close one, eh?” she exclaimed; surprised, and not nearly as outwardly frightened as any common-sensed person should be. But in the moment that Suzy Lu’s guard was down, Smaug gave a bounding run and took to the air again. Snarling murderously as he shot towards her, the dragon’s huge body ferociously brushed the sky-ride along his scaly side, flying past. The damage was instantly fatal, as Suzy Lu’s ride went hurtling down to ground on a collision course, smoke trailing behind it. The ride landed with an almighty crash, its occupant being thrown ten feet forward to land face-down in the snow.

As Suzy Lu pushed herself up on her hands in the snow, the Blizzarian Sky Knight could only watch in wide-eyed despair, as Smaug flew towards the nearby village. But Suzy Lu was surprised a moment later, to see the dragon’s giant shape swoop low upon a moderately-high, isolated ridge, dropping something from his hind-claws. A figure, too far away for Suzy Lu to make out through the snowfall, but looking like whoever it was were wearing pink and white. Immediately, Smaug climbed out of his low glide and flew ahead towards the village.

The many defence cannons mounted throughout the village started firing volleys of various icy and non-icy blasts at the dragon. The puny shots did little but bounce harmlessly off the dragon’s indestructible hide. Smaug unleashed a stream of molten fire upon the small village below him as he glided overhead. The screams of fleeing and dying Blizzarians quickly rose into the air with the smoke and flames, as Smaug cut a clear, _thick_ line of flame through the village from one end to the other. The dragon instantly moved on from there, flying upward along the high mountain that overlooked the village. The one where the terra’s fabled rare crystal shone out from the white peak, a tiny pinprick of blue light at Suzy Lu’s distance. As the dragon closed in on what he’d come here for, a huge catapult that had been set up for just this attack, flung an adequately-sized net into the air, aimed at the Dragon-Dread’s middle; but Smaug’s roving gold eyes had already seen it, and he stopped himself short on his wings, letting the net sail through air directly in front of him.

Suzy Lu’s attention was drawn from the spectacle, by the sound of a voice calling out on the wind, sounding desperate. She turned her head to see the indiscernible figure on the ridge seeming to frantically signal the dragon. Suzy Lu thought she’d heard that voice before…

But the Blizzarian Sky Knight didn’t have more than a few seconds to think on it before, with a triumphant roar; Smaug’s huge silhouette was hovering right above the mountaintop, snatching up the peak’s treasure in his hind-claws. A moment later, the dragon was flying away, heading straight for where he’d left the yelling figure. As Smaug reached the ridge within a few seconds, Suzy Lu was sure that the person had stopped screaming; as Smaug slowed over the ridge without landing, picked the person up in one hind-claw, then flew away, disappearing beyond the mountain-peaks that dotted Terra Blizzaris.

Suzy Lu despaired over the destruction that her people had just suffered, and her immediate priorities were getting straight over to the burning village to help. But her green eyes lingered for just a moment on where Smaug had flown off, remembering the mysterious person she’d just seen with the Dragon-Dread…

* * *

A few hours after the attack on Terra Blizzaris, Smaug and Piper were back in the dragon’s warm cave lair, away from the sun and day. Piper sat alone and miserable in a corner, whilst Smaug was in his position lying protectively around his crystal-pile; feasting on a sky-shark he’d caught on the way back. He would let Piper have the leftover scraps, which were plenty to adequately fill a human’s belly, once he had finished his fill.

By now, the princess dress Piper had been wearing when Smaug had taken her was growing dishevelled; losing its former elegance from exposure to the elements. Piper had lost one of the dress’s elbow-length gloves, the royal ponytail that her indigo-blue hair had been pulled up in was growing frayed as hairs poked out here and there, and she’d long thrown away the tiara. Nearly a week had passed since Piper had given herself to Smaug on Terra Klockstoppia, and already Smaug was making her feel like she were dying inside.

The inside of Smaug’s cavern had grown uncomfortable enough after a while, reeking of a noxious fume that reminded Piper of sulphur and something burning; and constantly bathed by the treasure in a disconcerting mix of multicoloured glows, which made it difficult to sleep for Piper. And with nothing homely in the cave, nor anything but harsh rocks and the dragon’s treasure all around for Piper to try and rest on.

But the open sky beyond the cave exit, which Piper would have expected to long for, to want to fly out to; she had actually come to fear seeing even more than she hated the cave. For whenever Smaug took Piper with him in his claws as he flew out to the sky, it always meant they were going to an attack on a terra for whatever treasure Smaug sought there. Smaug burned whatever town was below him in his passing and then went on to claim the treasure, but he usually didn’t bother further with the terra’s inhabitants, nor with the Sky Knight squadrons he beat down on the way. Not unless there was a notable human populace, Piper had found. In that case, Smaug would be certain to burn every inch of the terra’s town below him, searing it away to blackened ash until there was almost nothing left alive there. The image of the attack on Terra Malumas returned to Piper’s head again.

Thinking of Smaug, Piper turned and stared out of the corner of her eye at where the dragon was finishing his meal. Her gaze held nothing short of venom, all directed at the dragon who had made the past week a misery for her.

Piper was not a spiteful person – she’d known how to be disgusted by and against everything that terrible, murdering monsters and rogues like Smaug, the Cyclonians and others stood for. Even Piper’s former-friend and enemy _Lark_ – better known as Master Cyclonis – held a place of painful but hurt-based animosity in Piper’s heart. But Smaug had taken away Piper’s freedom and made her his prisoner; he’d made her watch as he used the strength that he siphoned from her to burn and destroy dozens if not hundreds of innocents at a time, all to sate his own greed for precious trinkets. And for that, Piper _hated_ Smaug right now, unlike she’d hated anything before in her life.

Across the cave, eating his sky-shark; Smaug relished as much in Piper’s misery as he had over the last week since she’d come here. He no longer forcefully kept her within claw’s reach so she could do no harm, for he no longer needed to; and it gave Smaug that little bit more pleasure, to make Piper feel that much closer to freedom and yet so far from it.

Smaug could feel from the way the buzz they both felt in the air had changed, how weak Piper had grown in the past week. No doubt a side-effect of Smaug pulling so much on the well of power in their bond, drawing the flow she’d grown used to controlling further away from her and back towards himself again. It was nothing to threaten Piper’s health, but now she couldn’t summon enough power from the bond to make a cup tremble if she tried.

As Piper looked Smaug over, she was sure that he actually looked more frightening than he had a week ago. She wasn’t sure if that were possible. He looked the same, but the flame-like light of his eyes seemed brighter, and somehow his terrifyingly-huge form radiated even more power than it had before. Even the clear-silver odd scale on his chest seemed to shine out more noticeably…

Before Piper could think any further on that subject; the huge, mostly-eaten carcass that was left of the sky-shark was tossed from Smaug’s jaws, to perfectly land with a loud thud just ten feet away from where she was curled up against the cave wall.

“The rest is yours,” Smaug growled dismissively. Piper looked at the skeleton that had some remaining flesh on it, well-cooked by the heat of Smaug’s breath. Then she turned away from the carcass stubbornly, her amber eyes seeming to stare off into space.

This was the routine they’d fallen into since Piper had become part of Smaug’s treasure. She would ignore and refuse what food Smaug left for her; then after a while, she would give in and start picking the meat. It was rather like watching a stray animal, wary of the food and milk the mortal offered to it, before it grew more trusting; Smaug had found. Though much as Smaug relished in Piper’s suffering, today he wanted to try something else, just to break up the monotony of his contentedness with his plunder.

“Well, Piper, you and I have been together for almost seven days now,” Smaug purred _almost_ soothingly to the girl, as he slowly slinked across the cave floor towards her with a snakelike fluid motion. Though he didn’t come close enough to Piper for it to be an invasion of personal space, his huge head looming just fifteen feet away from her. “I think it’s about time that you and I got to know each-other a little better, don’t you?”

“Thanks, but I think I already know you well enough,” Piper spat, not turning round to let Smaug have the satisfaction of looking her in the eye. If he did, he would see how _wounded_ on the inside she really was. “I’ve seen you burn hundreds of people alive _all because of your own cruelty_!”

“ _Hmmm_ , I see we’re rather the squeamish one about that, are we?” Smaug hummed, almost _cooed_ ; unapologetic for what he’d done. As his stinking hot breath washed over her, the tone in Smaug’s voice greatly disgusted and infuriated Piper.

“ _Squeamish?_!” Piper snapped, whirling round to glare into Smaug’s hypnotic eyes defiantly.

Smaug’s only reaction was to snort dismissively. “So you talk _at last_ ,” he commented. He spoke almost as though he were a responsible adult dealing with an unreasonably-behaving child, and it made Piper’s blood boil. The girl looked like she were ready to lash out at Smaug in some further manner, but instead she slid down against the rock wall behind her; though her amber eyes never stopped glaring up at Smaug.

“ _Why are you doing this_?” Piper demanded to know, a sliver of the fight going out of her eyes as she now just wanted… an answer.

“As a dragon, I pride myself on knowing every piece of my treasure _down to the last ounce_ ,” Smaug said, his yellow eyes narrowing on Piper in a somewhat strange way. “Yet I know so little about you. I am curious to know, Piper – where _exactly_ do you come from?” Smaug’s tone, in the way he said the last part, made it clear that he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Still, Piper didn’t immediately open her lips, which caused Smaug to growl in cave-shaking anger as his blazing eyes glowered frighteningly. Piper seemed to sense through it all that even if Smaug needed her alive, making him angry still wouldn’t be good for her health.

“What do you want to know about where I’m from?” Piper asked, looking away. Smaug was immediately satisfied, a conniving smirk spreading across his crocodilian face.

“Well, Piper, where does a child such as yourself come from, to become part of a Sky Knight squadron?” Smaug asked, slinking his head in a bit closer to the ground. Then he surprised Piper by declaring when she didn’t answer right away: “If you tell me about yourself, Piper, I will give you some of _my_ precious secrets. Is that fair?”

Piper’s mind inwardly lit up at once, as she thought of what she had to gain from this; getting Smaug to share information with her that he hadn’t shared with anyone else. Perhaps Smaug would let something important slip, Piper thought. Though she also noted that she’d have to be careful about what she said to him. And even so, she knew she wasn’t getting out of this any other way. She lowered her head with a half-defeated sigh, before looking back up at Smaug to calmly say:

“Alright, I’ll tell you; but _you_ go first.” Smaug bristled in outrage that Piper had had the nerve to dare command him, but he _just_ managed to beat the need to burn down when she said: “Surely you’ve got _much more_ to say than I have?” For a moment, a stillness hung in the air, as Smaug looked like he were between exploding with white-hot rage and settling down coolly. Thankfully, he seemed to lean towards the latter. The dragon smirked, though it didn’t fully reach his shining molten eyes.

“What was it like, where you grew up?” Piper asked him carefully.

Smaug, settling into a catlike sitting position with his wings folded and the foreclaws crossed in front of him, smoothly boasted: “When I was born, I was already one of the last great fire-drakes to live in the world.” He put in with a clearly disgusted tone: “ _What mongrel little was left of my kind_ _by then_ were forced to hatch in cold, barren wastes towards the north; scrounging on wretched vermin.”

“Really?” Genuine surprise slightly lit up Piper’s amber eyes, the only emotional light that her eyes had seen in days. “Then, how old _are_ you, Smaug?” The dragon immediately hummed in thought, his eyes narrowed as he thought deeply; for truthfully, dragons didn’t keep count of their years like humans did.

“ _Hmm_ , must be about… _500_?” Smaug murmured. “Give or take a decade or two.” And that count was excluding whatever time Smaug had spent in that accursed enchantment from the black arrow, he noted. Piper’s face lit up with shock at hearing Smaug’s age. Smaug thought she was probably mistaking this to mean he’d been alive right before the long-dead dragons in Atmos had disappeared.

“Now, it’s _your turn_ ,” Smaug said curtly, in a way that wouldn’t be refused. He watched intently, to see if Piper would be _half_ as cryptic in her revelations of her past as he’d been when describing his upbringing in the Withered Heath of Middle-Earth.

“I was born on a terra somewhere north,” Piper admitted softly. Though her voice was gentle, Smaug could just detect the underlying guard within her tone, and she refused to look into his eyes the entire time. She was being careful – and quite wisely so. “I was too young to remember its name the last time I saw it. My parents ran a mechanic shop there, and my father taught me a lot about building things; but I was more interested in _other fields_ …”

An almost wistful smile managed to spread on Piper’s face as she remembered. Though she wisely didn’t dare breathe the details to Smaug; she remembered her father, who she hadn’t seen in ten years now. How he would home-school her on the mechanics of things, trying to teach her about building and fixing all kinds of technology from radios to sky-rides. But in the evenings after her lessons, Piper would go running up the rural hill behind their home, to the little crystal-workshop that the four-year-old girl had made in her family’s shed; tinkering with the glowing stones that so held her fascination…

Smaug hummed softly at the story Piper had told him, evidently entertained by it. “Quite an _idyllic upbringing_ you had, did you?” he murmured almost soothingly in his rumbling voice. “Tell me, how did it all end?” A sting pricked Piper inside the chest, and the smile faded from her face, as her eyes looked down at the ground. But she knew it wouldn’t be wise to make a big weakness out of this in front of Smaug that he could use against her, especially when this memory was truthfully a rather painful one for her.

“Cyclonians attacked the terra ten years ago,” Piper breathed softly. Though she’d been young at the time, and the mind could block out a lot of things that it didn’t like, she remembered one thing well: “My father led me away to the terra docks while Talons were attacking from the air, and he got me in the back of a garbage ship right before it escaped…” And that was the last time Piper had ever seen her father, or her mother. Though the Cyclonians often preferred taking civilian prisoners alive as labour over cutting them down, when she’d never heard from her parents again, she’d come to terms with the fact long ago, that they were _gone_.

“You were close to your father, I take it?” Smaug questioned, glowing eyes narrowed on Piper calmly. He was aware that mortals, much like the pack animals they were, held close emotional ties to family and kin; though he’d never quite been able to grasp the concept himself as it was rather unlike dragons, and most unlike him.

“Well, yeah a bit,” Piper answered Smaug’s question, her lowered eyes shifting. She hoped to brush it away, rather than let Smaug see a vulnerable spot he could exploit. Truthfully, while she remembered being quite close to the man as a little girl, she was still only four years old the last time she had seen him. “Were you close to _your_ parents, Smaug?” Piper immediately asked him, hoping to turn the tables. Smaug simply produced a growling, rumbling chuckle from his thickly-built chest at the question.

“Sad to say, I never knew my father; he died shortly after I hatched,” Smaug replied, truthfully and almost casually in his matter-of-fact tone. “And I haven’t seen my mother since I left the nest young, ahead of my nest-mates.”

“You had _siblings_?” Piper all but squawked, her eyes widening with interest as she suddenly looked up at Smaug. Smaug’s mood instantly soured, though it was actually more of a pouty mood than something seriously dangerous.

“ _Three_ ,” he admitted, his growling voice curt.

Smaug hadn’t seen any of his family since leaving the nest younger than when most drakes did. He’d been an impulsive young dragon at the time, who’d been eager to get out into the world, to test his limits on it and carve out his way through it. But Smaug had known that if his mother and siblings weren’t dead by the time he’d conquered Erebor for himself, then they would have most certainly been dead by the time when the filthy Thorin Oakenshield had come crawling back to the Mountain to take the gold for his own grubby paws. That had been sixty years after Smaug had last kept up with any news from the outside world, and had been considered amongst mortals to be one of the last of his great breed in all of Middle-Earth.

“Now, where did you go after leaving your home?” Smaug suddenly asked Piper smoothly.

“I… wondered around for a while,” Piper answered cautiously, looking down again. “I was on my own all the time, but I got by. Then, when I was still a kid, I met Aerrow…” (And Finn, though she still wanted to avoid sharing too many details with Smaug.)

“Ah, the boy playing knight,” Smaug murmured disdainfully to no-one in particular. The dragon’s remark triggered a sudden rise of anger in Piper, though she _just_ managed to beat it down. “But there is one part of your story you’ve _left out_ that I’m most curious to hear about, Piper,” the dragon spoke, his eyes immediately fixed on Piper piercingly.

“What is that?” Piper asked cautiously, still looking away from Smaug’s face.

“I’ve heard a lot around Atmos about your _mastery with crystals_ ,” Smaug said. “What do you have to say about that?”

Piper physically winced, as the words Smaug had spoken instantly evoked the memory of someone who had spoken very similar words to her. One who Piper had thought was her friend, her _best friend forever_ for saving her life actually. And now, Piper instantly found herself wishing she hadn’t gotten into this little game with Smaug, as she felt like she were in the same vulnerable position that Cyclonis had exploited.

“Crystals are just something I’ve always been kinda good at,” Piper tried to brush it off. But Smaug glared with his fire-coloured eyes, unsatisfied with her answer.

“Did your dearly-departed parents teach you what you know about them?” Smaug asked. His growling voice was calm and close-to-gentle, with no detectable mockery in his undertone, but he wouldn’t be taking anything short of a straight answer from Piper.

“No,” Piper told him, “I taught myself everything I know about them.”

“Really?” Smaug responded, glowing eyes narrowed. So all of Piper’s encyclopaedic knowledge of crystals had exclusively come from her own trial and error? “So would I be correct in guessing that you’ve enjoyed them since you were young, _like a magpie to shining coins_?!” Smaug’s eyes glinted savagely at his nasty remark. It seemed to set something off in Piper, much to Smaug’s entertainment; as the girl instantly glared furiously at the gigantic dragon, standing up in her dishevelled princess dress.

“A _magpie to shiny things_?!” she echoed, outraged. “ _You’re_ one to talk of something like that, you murder people just to surround yourself with _useless,_ _lifeless gold_ and _crystals that you don’t even use_!” Piper was half-expecting Smaug to get angry at what she’d said, which he did. A cavern-shuddering growl escaped between his gritted teeth, his eyes were blazing _murderously_ as he glared threateningly right down at her.

“Don’t be so quick to think yourself capable of understanding the nature and glory of what it is to be a creature like me, _WRETCH_!” Smaug snarled down at her with barely-contained fury. “I am a _dragon_ , a master of the fire and winds! It is in my nature to take what is mine to desire, for myself, and to guard it from all the would-be thieves of the world who would think to take it from me!”

“And that makes it okay!?” Piper spat back at Smaug, disgust in her defiant tone. Smaug had to take a second to decide in his head, whether to be impressed by the arrogant little worm’s stubbornness or disdainful of her pathetic small-mindedness.

“I see no reason why it shouldn’t,” Smaug growled, in a tone of voice that was utterly unashamed and unapologetic. The dragon leaned towards Piper; snaking his head around her like a real snake circling its prey, whilst the fiery eye on his head beamed down on her like a vulture observing a chunk of meat left in the sun. “You may think your _canting mortal hide_ to be better than mine; but your naïve, singular little worldview holds no meaning to _me_!” Smaug snarled. Then he added derisively, almost as though he were an adult reprimanding a youngling: “Do you _honestly_ think you can tell me that _your_ love for crystals didn’t come to you the same way?!”

Piper just closed her eyes against Smaug’s subliminal voice and gaze, suddenly becoming aware of the trap she had fallen into. Piper’s frustration with herself for letting Smaug trick her and lure her in throughout their conversation, was only eclipsed by her ferocious struggle to protest that Smaug’s hypnotic words were not true; though that did nothing against the words’ inky hold over her mind.

“That has nothing to do with the things _you_ do,” Piper pointed, though in a weaker-sounding voice, back at Smaug; who had just begun snaking away from her back towards his personal space in the cavern. Smaug stopped and half-turned his head back, at what she’d said.

“Perhaps not, but I still see no reason to apologise for _what I am_ ,” Smaug hissed back at her, initially without fully turning round. Then he craned his head on his flexible neck to fully face her, both his fiery eyes boring into her as he declared: “As I said, I am a _dragon_ , a creature of fury and might, I am fire and death _incarnate_. We are the mightiest race in _all of this world_! Dragons answer to nothing and no-one but their own wills and whims, and live to destroy _all_ that dares stand in their way! And we are far more than any _pathetic mortal_ could ever hope to understand!”

Piper didn’t say anything for a moment, disgusted by Smaug, as his words stayed with her. “If this is what being the _greatest creature in the world_ means, I can’t say I’d wish to be a _master of fire and wind_ like _you_!” she spat venomously, sitting there with her eyes closed.

Smaug scoffed in utter agreement with Piper on that. The mere thought of a human being like a dragon would be utterly _audacious_ , if it weren’t so ludicrous. Had such an idea rolled off the tongue of any human other than this one, Smaug would have probably burned them on principle for daring to speak such a thing where he could hear them.

“Oh, I quite agree with you on that,” Smaug said as he lay himself down across the cavern for rest, his one eye remaining open and on Piper. Though he made sure to add before his eyes closed: “One can’t help but draw the parallels between _your_ lifelong love for crystals and _my_ lifelong love for gold, Piper… and wonder _when_ one of us is as truly ‘ _better_ ’ than the other as you claim!” He showed no facial indication, but Smaug was inwardly grinning as he was aware of the dark seed he’d just planted inside Piper’s mind. He would be interested to see how it would grow and take shape.

After that, Smaug just lay there, saving energy – _lazing_ , to put it less politely – with an eye half-open. Whilst Piper was left thinking on what Smaug had said to her, and what little she had managed to learn from their interactions today. It wasn’t until after the scaly eyelid had fully closed, and the earthquake-like rumble of a snore told her Smaug was asleep; that Piper deemed it safe to slip out the shining blue-white crystal that she’d hidden within her dress. Piper had found the crystal by pure chance, on an uninhabited rock that she and Smaug had stopped on during the flight back from Blizzaris. When she’d recognised what it was, she’d picked it up at once, hoping that Smaug would never sense its weak energy signature. Piper grinned at the stone as she thought she would be getting out of here soon…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smaug’s sleeping posture in this chapter is based on a brilliant piece by DevinNath on DeviantART.


	12. The Tale of Sir Aerrow

The _Condor_ hurtled fast between the two Cyclonian battle-cruisers, swerving to narrowly miss the volleys of red blasts that were fired the ship’s way; thanks to Stork’s flying skills. Finn and Junko were manning the turret cannons, firing back, whilst Talons were whooshing like a swarm around the _Condor_ , attempting to stop the ship’s course. That was what Aerrow and Radarr were out on their Skimmer dealing with, right now. They took one Switchblade down as they flew by alongside it; then not four seconds later, Aerrow unleashed the Lightning Claw upon another Talon’s ride to blast it out of the sky.

“ _Aerrow, the_ Condor _’s through the Cyclonians’ main defensive line and headed straight for the terra_ ,” Junko’s voice called out over the comm radio on Aerrow’s Skimmer.

“Great job, Junko,” Aerrow complimented, smiling – something his face hadn’t done much of in the last week. He looked ahead, to the complex-dominated terra that was their target, as he ordered: “But keep your eyes out. If this Cyclonian outpost is half as valuable as it’s supposed to be, I’d bet that Master Cyclonis sent-”

“-sent _who_ , _Aerrow_?” a cold, unwelcome voice interrupted the boy Sky Knight. Aerrow looked back, to see an unpleasantly-familiar Cyclonian standing on a Switchblade, looming in the air a little above and behind Aerrow’s Skimmer. It was a gaunt, handsome man, decked in extra Cyclonian armour, with the red emblem emblazoned across his chest; cruel red eyes, and black hair that poked through and around the metal headpiece he wore.

“ _Dark Ace_!” Aerrow hissed aggressively at the sight of his archenemy, the most fearsome veteran Talon that Cyclonia had in its armada. The Dark Ace wasted no time in unleashing his own lightning move against the one Sky Knight who’d ever gotten away from him. Radarr and Aerrow both cried out as they saw the bolt of red lightning, and just swerved their Skimmer in time to avoid being hit by the deadly blast.

His double-bladed energy sabre already out and ignited, the Dark Ace leapt off his ride, headed for Aerrow with a roar. Aerrow leapt to his feet upon his own sky-ride, his twin lightning-blades in either hand. The red-haired Sky Knight’s blades met the Dark Ace’s sabre in a violent flash; both the two fighters glaring at each-other over their blades. The Dark Ace tried a dirty kick at Aerrow from below, which the younger Sky Knight managed to block. Just as Aerrow leapt upward to strike back, the Dark Ace immediately manoeuvred out of his way, leaving Aerrow to touch down where the veteran Talon had been a second ago. The two duellists ferociously trading blocks and blows with their energy-blades.

* * *

Meanwhile, Stork was struggling furiously as he navigated the _Condor_ , twisting this way and that. Furious red energy-blasts and attacking Talons continued to flash and fly across the windshields, as Finn and Junko’s turrets fired back at the attackers. The terra was coming straight up ahead of them. Truthfully, Stork was just about to ram the ship forward on a collision course with the intensity of the moment; when, a tiny, unspecial-looking stone upon a table nearby, started shining with building intensity; then it sent out a gentle flash of white light through the bridge. Stork immediately whirled round at the disturbance, ready to introduce any Cyclonian that had gotten onto his ship to the deadly traps of doom laden about. The Merp was mildly surprised to see a particular bluish-white crystal glowing on the table.

“What…?” Stork murmured. He didn’t have any longer to think on it before a tremendous crash shook the ship, immediately snapping Stork out of his stupor and getting him back to piloting.

“ _Ugh_ , Stork, what _was_ that?” Finn groaned loudly from his post at the turret cannon outside; referring to the successful hit the Cyclonians had gotten in.

A second later, the course of Aerrow’s Skimmer on which he and the Dark Ace viciously fought, took it whooshing by directly in front of the _Condor_ ; within clear view of the windshields. As Aerrow kicked the Dark Ace backward before the Talon could have landed a finishing blow, the red-eyed man got a quick but clear view of the Storm Hawks’ ship flitting by alongside them. He almost-instantly counted how many he saw at the turrets and through the bridge’s windshields, and his eyes narrowed as he took note.

“You seem to be one Storm Hawk short, _Aerrow_ ,” the Dark Ace growled, grinning nastily up at the boy Sky Knight before him. Aerrow just glared right back at the Dark Ace, their eyes locked; in the split-second before the Cyclonian leapt in for another attack and their duel recommenced. The duel soon afterwards took them on course with the Dark Ace’s pilotless Switchblade. Right before Aerrow could land a serious blow to him, the Dark Ace, seemingly picking that very moment; leapt away from Aerrow onto his own sky-ride.

Whilst Aerrow and the Dark Ace continued duelling through the air, Stork drove the _Condor_ crashing straight towards the outpost’s main power dome – much to Finn’s frantic screaming at the turret. At the last second, Stork pulled the ship upwards from its collision course to graze the very top of the dome; letting the structure violently explode at the disruption, whilst the _Condor_ flew away from the blast.

The Dark Ace looked back from his sky-duel with Aerrow for a moment, to see the outpost’s power system go up in flames. It wasn’t long afterwards that the Dark Ace fled, and the other Cyclonian forces were retreating right behind him.

* * *

One of the first things the guys did after the successful battle was gather on the _Condor_ ’s bridge, to see the glowing crystal Stork had told them about over the comms.

“What the heck _is_ this crystal anyway?” a puzzled Finn asked, as the five Storm Hawks all stood around the glowing stone; which was now thrumming, pulsating with a rhythm on the bridge’s central table. “And why is it glowing like that?”

“Not sure,” Stork said. “It’s one of Piper’s that were left lying around. Just _went off_ right in the heat of the battle…” Aerrow squinted his eyes as he focused on the pulsating stone; taking note of the particular repetitive rhythm its glow was pulsing with. He was sure that he’d seen this before… Then it clicked.

“I know this pattern!” Aerrow exclaimed. He immediately went on to explain to all the listening guys: “It’s Aeromorse Code; for sending communications in coded form over very base-level transmissions.” As he said this, Aerrow leaned in to look closer, reading what the pulsating-pattern was saying: “ _00…10…25…69…52…87…01…44…639…_ 7.”

“And that’s supposed to mean something, right?” Finn murmured, not getting it. Junko narrowed his eyes as he puzzled it over, for a total of three seconds.

“Uh, maybe it’s coordinates,” he suggested.

“Stork.” Aerrow turned to the helmsman.

“One step ahead of you,” Stork murmured, smirking as he pulled the heavy wooden box out from under the table. The Merp unrolled one particular map out before them. He slowly traced his fingers around the drawn sky and landmasses, as though trying to locate something, then jabbed as he found it. “There’s only _one_ location in all of Atmos with those numbers as coordinates. And it’s…” Stork stopped, his eyes widening with surprise and a little apprehension, as he noted, “ _Very_ remote. An outcropping of crags that no-one passes by.”

“Why would anyone be sending us all the way out there?” Junko asked curiously. Radarr likewise chirped in bafflement. But Aerrow realised the answer within seconds, coming up beside Stork to look at the map himself.

“ _Piper_!” he exclaimed to the guys. Immediately, everyone’s faces lit up with hope unlike they’d had in days; Radarr in particular chirped happily. “Stork, is it possible Piper could have found a way to reach us through this thing?” Aerrow asked the helmsman almost immediately, holding the pulsating crystal in hand.

“Um, I’m not the crystal expert on this ship,” Stork pointed out. “ _But_ …” Stork immediately unrolled a larger map; one of the clutter from Piper’s workshop that they’d been trying to find her and Smaug by, “this area the coordinates are pointing towards, is _right_ in the vicinity of the range where Smaug’s attacks are most frequent. There’s nothing valuable worth mining in that place, and no traders’ ships pass by for leagues around.” Stork pointed to the sea of red dots joined by many criss-crossing lines to each other on the map.

Aerrow looked up, his face suddenly stern as he turned to the other guys. “Alright. Everybody, get your weapons ready for training in half an hour.” His green eyes narrowed as he said seriously: “We’re going on a _rescue mission_.”

* * *

Aerrow and the guys spent the remainder of the day mapping out the area where they supposed Smaug and Piper were; looking for where they could hide or take cover, how they could go in, get out, and how to evade Smaug. Aerrow wanted to sneak in cautiously since this was Smaug they were dealing with, a logic that Stork had more than agreed to.

It was only an hour after the crack of a grey dawn had broken over the barren, fog-wreathed spiky region, that the _Condor_ was flying in through the Wastelands underneath the lair’s grey cloud-fog. Hopefully, the Dragon-Dread wouldn’t spot them down here. The Storm Hawks were surprised to encounter so few creatures hindering the ship in the volcanic wastes. Aerrow noted, it was as though even the Wastelands’ terrors fled from Smaug’s presence.

Stork stayed with the _Condor_ in the relatively danger-free Wasteland; whilst Aerrow, Radarr, Finn and Junko scouted on the jagged rocks above the cloudline. They took a high vantage point where they would be shielded under a ledge’s shadow from any immediate sight, as they looked out for any sign of Smaug. It was getting close to noon in the foreboding region, with no sign of any dragon, when Junko pointed with his grey eyes wide.

“There!”

Aerrow followed Junko’s gaze, holding the heavy binoculars over his eyes; and sure enough, he saw the Dragon-Dread himself flying. Finn and Radarr saw it too; the dragon’s silhouette seeming tiny, yet fine and sharp against the sky at this distance.

Was it just Aerrow, or did Smaug somehow look more frightening through the binoculars than before? His fiery yellow eyes seemed brighter, and he just seemed to radiate more ferocity. Aerrow remembered Piper’s connection with Smaug, and also how news of the dreaded dragon’s attacks had been getting progressively worse over the week since Klockstoppia, and the boy Sky Knight seriously hoped this wasn’t what he thought it was. But what caught Aerrow’s attention above all else as he looked, was the girl who was carried in one of Smaug’s large hind-claws; dressed in a now-somewhat dishevelled princess dress.

_Piper._

The guys watched from their unseen lookout, as Smaug’s shadow flew through the lifeless valley toward one specific crag, at the gloomy centre. As Smaug landed, Aerrow raised the binoculars back to his face; in time to spy the dragon’s thick, stocky hindquarters and then his long tail, slinking away into a cave mouth on the crag.

“Okay,” Aerrow said, turning back to face Finn, Junko and Radarr; who listened quite intently as Aerrow said, “we now know exactly _where_ Smaug is, and that he has Piper with him. The plan is, we keep a lookout until midnight and watch for any sign of him, and if Smaug hasn’t come out again at all by then; we guess he’s asleep and go in.”

“And we just grab Piper out from under him while he’s sleeping, and hope he doesn’t wake and come after us?” Finn deadpanned, though there wasn’t as much complaint within his tone as usual.

Aerrow just smiled confidently, remembering the Velocity Crystal they’d gotten on Terra Saharr. “If Smaug is awake, we’ll go full throttle. Trust me, we’ll be way out of here before he can follow us.”

For the next several long hours, the guys stayed at their hidden vantage point, watching the crag that Smaug had gone into. Aerrow did most of the watching as the daylight’s shadows wheeled by over the valley; he barely ever took his eyes away from the binoculars, or left the front of the ledge. Finn and Junko, however, quickly busied themselves with games of thumb-wrestling at the back. Even Radarr was falling asleep with his back resting against Aerrow’s arm, when the animal Storm Hawk was startled from his rest by the noise of an alarm clock worn on Aerrow’s side, going off.

“That’s midnight,” Aerrow murmured, serious. “Let’s move!” The guys took their three Skimmers flying across the open lair in the night, headed straight for where Smaug lived. They crossed the vast distance within a few minutes, disengaging their sky-rides into bike-mode as they quietly landed at the foot of the cave mouth.

“Okay, remember,” Aerrow addressed his whole squadron; “if we go in there and Smaug’s awake, we move to grab Piper and blast out of here fast. And if he’s asleep, we try and quietly sneak away with Piper, without waking him.” Finn and Junko both nodded their heads, and Radarr chirped faithfully. Then the group were slowly stalking ahead, wheeling their deactivated Skimmers alongside them; and crossing the boundary into the dark cave entrance.

For a couple minutes of walking, there was nothing but long, very-spacious dark tunnel all around the guys. Then they saw a faint glow coming up ahead of them through the twisting cave’s darkness. The group came out into the cavern at the end, single file. All four of the group present took a moment to marvel in awe at the dazzling piles of shining gold and treasure before them. Then the guys’ eyes landed on Smaug himself; lying _discomfortingly_ close to the way they had come in.

Smaug barely moved at all in his sleep, and the huge dragon looked surprisingly peaceful for a winged machine of death. His long, serpentine body lay protectively in front of a tall pile of crystals, sandwiched between Smaug and the wall behind him.

The dragon’s sleeping posture was somewhat catlike, with his two long winged-limbs draped out across the cavern floor and their clawed hands crossed over each-other. His crocodilian head and its draping long neck rested with eyes closed, as the nostrils moved with a snoring motion. But what Aerrow and the guys really focused on was their friend, Piper; lying almost-as-peacefully asleep close to Smaug’s head, her body lying atop the folded membrane of one wing like it were a cushion, the fingers of one foreclaw lying across her body and effectively pinning her.

Aerrow silently signalled to Radarr, Finn and Junko for them to stay where they were, before he was slowly creeping closer towards the sleeping dragon on silent feet; the only sound filling the cavern being Smaug’s low, tremor-like rumble of a snore. As Aerrow finally came to Smaug’s foreclaws, the boy Sky Knight ever-so-carefully reached one hand towards the girl in the dragon’s grasp; resting the hand on her shoulder, to shake her ever-so-slightly.

“ _Piper_ ,” Aerrow whispered in the tiniest sound. Piper’s amber eyes blinked tiredly open, and she slowly lifted her head up with a slight groan. At first she didn’t react to her friends’ faces in front of her, perhaps thinking it to be some hope-filled dream of hers that she would wake from to despair. But once she was properly awake, Piper quickly widened her eyes in shock.

“ _Aerrow_?” she whispered back; none of the whispered voices disturbing the sleeping dragon. Her eyes swiftly looked past Aerrow to Finn, Radarr and Junko, all of whom were smiling at her. “ _Guys_?!” Though Piper wasn’t a girl who would have broken down in tears in her friends’ arms, the painful relief was still very evident; as a smile that was almost cracking with emotion, spread across her face (after she’d taken a very brief glance over her shoulder to make sure Smaug was still asleep).

Piper would have thrown herself at Aerrow in a hug, if she weren’t pinned by Smaug’s huge fingers across her lap and legs. “ _You made it_!” she hissed in a whisper.

“ _We got the coordinates from that crystal you had on the_ Condor,” a smiling Aerrow explained.

“ _Great, so you got the message I sent it_!” Piper hissed. She glanced out the corner of her eye again, back at the face of the giant dragon holding her. “ _We’d better get out of here before he wakes up!_ ” Aerrow nodded, smiling as he reached out his hand. Piper took it in her own and tried to wriggle free... but Smaug’s fingers shifted slightly at the disturbance, making Aerrow and Piper both stop. They exchanged uncertain glances in the moment of tension; both of them fearful of Smaug waking at any moment. Piper tried to pull out much more slowly, but Smaug still stirred slightly at every painstakingly-long movement. In fact, when Piper kept trying, Smaug’s taloned fingers curled themselves around and underneath her to hold her tightly, his huge head shifted sideways much closer to her as the dragon growled in his sleep. Piper frowned almost despairingly at the predicament, and Aerrow winced.

Finn, Junko and Radarr all came tiptoeing over, to reach for Piper’s two hands. The group tried to horizontally pull her out from Smaug’s fingers, the plan working as Piper slid out with minimal resistance. Everyone feared for one wide-eyed moment that Smaug would wake up as the dragon grunted in his sleep, his fingers curling on air as Piper slid out of his grasp. A tense moment passed, before Smaug seemed to settle again, though his crocodilian face’s features were now slightly scrunched-up in his sleep. The guys all helped the princess-dressed girl to her feet on the cavern floor, carefully.

“ _Well, that was easy_ ,” Junko whispered.

“ _Now let’s get out of here while Smaug is still asleep_ ,” Aerrow whispered back to his squadron. Piper mentally agreed that was a good idea, as Smaug was mumbling in his sleep as though he couldn’t find something. The Storm Hawks all moved to make a quiet and not-overly-swift dash towards their waiting sky-rides. But it ended as soon as it started, when Finn’s foot kicked a stray golden goblet hard enough to send it flying off the floor. Everyone held their breaths, as the object sailed through the air, and crashed rather loudly into a steep pile of gold. The sound of the collision rang through the chamber, followed swiftly by the sound of the object clattering down the precious pile to hit the floor.

A second of no reaction passed. Then the closed eye on Smaug’s head snapped open, the molten-yellow orb alert. The bladed pupil found the intruders’ small forms in one second. A terrifying and _very conscious_ growl cut through the air and froze the adolescents’ spines, as the formerly-sleepy features of Smaug’s face contorted with his anger.

“ _Run_!” Finn squeaked out almost too high for human ears to hear, blue eyes bulging in their sockets. In a split-second, the Storm Hawks all dashed straight for their rides, as the cavern exploded with the ear-splitting sound of a furious roar. Finn and Junko took their Skimmers blasting off down the tunnel faster than one could register, and Aerrow was right behind them with Piper riding on his Skimmer’s back. No more than a second behind them, Smaug was charging furiously down the tunnel; light was shining through his chest’s scales like the sun with his white-hot rage, as he roared murderously. He had let the Storm Hawks live on Terra Klockstoppia because he’d been in too good a mood at the time from obtaining what was his; but now they had crossed him and were stealing from him, and he would make an example out of them!

“YOU WILL **_BURN_**!”

The sound shook everyone’s bones as they frantically pushed their sky-rides to full-speed, with the light from the pursuing dragon’s jaws shining out behind them. Smaug unleashed the firestorm from his throat, the flames surging forward to burn his enemies away to oblivion. As the four on their three sky-rides made it out the cave mouth to the ledge, Smaug’s fire-breath was rushing and spreading out right behind them like an uncontrollable pyroclastic flow. Still in land-mode, the Storm Hawks’ rides just barely made it over the edge, before the raging fire burst out to the skies above their heads.

“Stork, _now_!” Aerrow yelled loud and clear to the radio as the three Skimmers fell vertically. Not two seconds later, the _Condor_ was rising upward through the misty-thin clouding to greet them. A smile broke across Piper’s face at the sight. The three sky-rides quickly shifted into flight-mode, swooping safely into the open Skimmer bay.

At the very same moment, Smaug came bounding out of the cave mouth; sweeping clear of the ledge with wings spread as he pounced straight for the ship that rose into sight. The dragon smashed into the top of the ship, his hind-claws going deep in through the roof. Then, swift as a katana, he pushed free of the ship with a powerful thrust of his wings, tearing much-needed internal components out in his hind-claws. The _Condor_ lingered on the air for about one second as its engines failed, before it was nosediving through the misty cloudline, smoke billowing behind it. The Storm Hawks on the bridge all screamed through the ride as the _Condor_ plummeted into the Wasteland; crashing to a stop upon a ridge in the barren ground.

The reunited squadron on the _Condor_ were splayed over the helm or elsewhere on the bridge after the impact, groaning. They didn’t have long to drag themselves back onto their feet or start nursing their aching bones, before a familiar and not-too-distant roar came from high above, at the cloudline. The sound immediately brought Aerrow’s mind back to focus.

“Stork, is there any chance of getting the _Condor_ back up in the air?” Aerrow immediately asked the helmsman.

“Nu-uh,” Stork observed dreadfully at the helm. “That strike took the main fuel lines clean out; this ship’s not going anywhere!” Piper quickly started going over the situation in her head, working fast as the sound of Smaug’s roars was getting closer.

“Wait a minute,” she exclaimed, and all the guys turned their attention to her. “What if we had an Alpha Welding crystal to get the fuel lines back together?”

“That would work, _but we don’t have a welding crystal on this ship_!” Stork half-murmured, his voice’s volume rising towards the end. His eyes were bulging frantically, and his nervous eye-twitch was making itself known.

“Not here,” Piper answered, with a hand over her chin in thought, “but Smaug has more crystals up in his lair than I’ve ever seen in one place before! There’s almost sure to be one up there somewhere!”

“And how do we get back up there with the _Condor_ down, then get back here to fix it, before Smaug spots us and picks us all off?” Stork pointed grimly.

“We’ll take care of that,” Aerrow quickly declared, commandingly. “We’ll go out there and keep Smaug busy dealing with us while you-” referring to Stork “-climb the way up and bring the crystal back down to the ship.”

“We _will_?” Finn murmured; looking far from feeling up to it, alongside Junko.

“Yes, we will!” Piper exclaimed, already dragging Finn along by his hand with her as she ran out. Aerrow was following behind her. She quickly called back over her shoulder to Stork: “It’s a moss-green crystal with silver flecks, shaped like a diamond!”

* * *

Aerrow, Piper, Radarr, Finn and Junko quickly dashed away across the barren landscape, as Smaug’s huge form swooped towards the _Condor_ , landing atop it like a vulture on a dead carcass. The dragon’s eyes, looking like flaming lanterns; instantly spotted the mortals, including the girl that was his, fleeing into the Wasteland in forking directions. Smaug roared, unleashing a torrent of molten fire after Finn and Junko, who both fled in the same direction. The two just barely made it to the field of rocks in time to take cover, as the flames surged right above their heads.

Smaug snarled as he watched the Storm Hawks go, noting that there was one who was not amongst their numbers… A wicked grin came across the dragon’s face as he craned his head, bringing his fiery eye directly level with the _Condor_ ’s windshields, peering in. Stork only _just_ managed to keep himself from squeaking in fright, as he curled up tighter in his cover behind the table from the roving eye’s gaze.

“ _Hey, ugly_!”

Smaug brought his enraged gaze up from the _Condor_ at the sound of the insulting voice, growling in outrage at the miserable cretin’s nerve. Aerrow was standing a considerable distance (by mortals’ standards) from Smaug across the black land, waving his arms mockingly as he tried to get the dragon’s attention. Smaug sneered in disdain as he saw right through the boy’s pathetic trick. The dragon’s facial expression was almost gloating as he turned his attention back towards the shipwreck.

But before Smaug’s eye could peer further, he was struck on the head, near the crest of spikes; by a tiny blue energy-bolt. Even if the shot was useless, the strike had Smaug whipping his head back up and glowering with blazing eyes on the one who had fired. Finn, holding his crossbow-weapon aimed, and Junko right beside him; both looked like mice sighted by a cat, in the second before Smaug charged away from the _Condor_ at them. The two mortals quickly fled into the Wasteland from the dragon’s rage-filled pursuit. Whilst back at the ship, the thin Merp was bolting away as fast as his gangly legs could run.

“Hey, _Smaug_!” The dragon whirled his head again from where he’d been about to flatten the human and wallop, to see Piper standing determined in her princess-dress. Her fists were balled at her sides, and Smaug could already sense the power she was drawing into herself from their bond. Smaug snorted with disdain; he’d fallen for this little cat-and-mouse trick once, he wouldn’t fall for it again. And if Piper thought he intended to get her back before _teaching her little friends a lesson_ , then she was sorely mistaken! Smaug smashed his tail hard into the ground, and the thunderous shockwave of the strike sent Piper falling backwards with a cry; her focus broken.

 _Now where was I_ , Smaug thought as he turned with a leer back to the other two Storm Hawks – only to find them gone! Snarling in anger, Smaug reared his neck, getting ready to suck in a huge breath. Then, he was distracted by the sound of a cry as some mortal leapt towards him, followed by the barely-noticeable _ting_ of something hitting Smaug on his back area. Standing on the surface of Smaug’s back, Aerrow looked from where he’d struck the dragon’s scales with his lightning-blades, to where Smaug’s head was craning to leer savagely at him out of one eye.

Fear passed over the boy’s wide green eyes; a second before Smaug, with a roar, ran and took to the air. He twirled his body majestically to throw Aerrow off him like from a twister, and the boy was sent tumbling across the dark ground; groaning. Aerrow barely had time to press himself up from the ashen dirt he’d landed chest-down in, before Smaug came in, landing directly before him.

Looking up into Smaug’s face, Aerrow saw the dragon’s piercing-bright eyes were almost _demented_ with a mad-seeming rage as he stood over him. A deep, articulated growling laugh filled with malice boomed forth from Smaug’s open jaws to the unclean air. Aerrow was sure now, up this close to the frightening dragon, that Smaug _definitely_ seemed more threatening than he had before.

“So, the want-to-be knight has gone from jousting with _bandits and pirates and thieves_ , to stealing back treasure and maidens from dragons now, _has he_!” Smaug half-laughed, half-snarled down at the red-haired Sky Knight, with a vicious look spreading across his reptilian face. Aerrow just glared bravely back as he met the dragon’s rage-filled gaze.

“Perhaps the gallant boy needs to learn what _really_ happens when he attempts to save the pretty maiden!” Smaug raged. Aerrow’s face pinched with fear underneath the dragon’s dark gaze. But Smaug was so enraptured in the kill that he hadn’t even noticed the increasing pull of power, building on the other end of the bond.

“Or what happens when the pretty maiden saves the knight!” Smaug twisted his head upward at the sound of the voice. He had a second to see Piper leaping in her dress, with a foot aimed out in a kick, before the foot made contact with the dragon’s eye. Pain unlike Smaug was normally used to, exploded agonisingly across his nervous tissue; as a shockwave blasted outward on the air from the contact.

Smaug went thrashing and staggering away on the ground in a whirlwind of disoriented fury, whilst Piper was thrown backwards by the shockwave’s force; tumbling to a stop on the ground. Aerrow rushed straight for where Piper had landed, as Smaug continued to thrash and roar nearby.

“Piper, are you okay?” Aerrow asked, kneeling down beside her to help her up.

“I’m fine,” she assured him softly, before turning her hard gaze past him onto Smaug. “I just hope Stork isn’t having any trouble finding that crystal…” Indeed, for it was at the moment those words left Piper’s mouth, that Smaug’s rage-filled face whirled back to face the two humans again. One eye was shut from the blow Piper had landed, whilst the other was shining bright with murderous fury.

* * *

“Moss-green crystal, silver flecks, shaped like a diamond…” the grim voice’s repetitive murmuring echoed throughout the currently-unoccupied cavern. Stork was digging through the _huge_ mound of crystals, with what strength his limbs retained after he’d _climbed_ all the way back up here.

“Oh, this would be so much easier if that dragon didn’t just LOVE TO HAVE SO MANY ACCURSED CRYSTALS!!” Stork suddenly shrieked out the last part to the cavern’s ceiling, as though yelling to the heavens themselves.

* * *

Finn continued to fire shot after shot at Smaug from where he and Junko had taken cover, but the dragon gave them no notice as his crimson hide deflected the bolts; slowly advancing on the two whom his open eye was fixed on.

“Piper, can you get another blast against him?” Aerrow asked, knelt right beside Piper on the ground.

“I don’t think so, I’ll need several seconds,” Piper murmured gravely. She now looked quite frail next to Aerrow, after what little that sudden burst of power had taken out of her. Her amber eyes were wide with fear as she said despairingly, “That’s seconds I don’t think we have…”

“ _Hey, over here_!” Finn, Junko and Radarr were shouting and yelling, trying to get Smaug’s attention as they hurled insults and mocking faces at him. But Smaug’s blazing gaze remained fixed on Aerrow and Piper.

With nowhere to run to in time, Aerrow immediately leapt off the ground and unleashed the Lightning Claw upon Smaug, aiming to hit his other eye. The advancing dragon saw it coming and just raised a folded wing-arm to shield his face. The bolt hit Smaug with about the force of an air-cannon on a child, as his body only flinched a little at the contact.

“ _I have it_!”

The sound of a voice yelling had Smaug and everybody else turning their gazes, in time to see Stork’s tiny figure on the rock wall a great distance away, mid-climb. Stork instantly regretted his call out, as he saw the dragon’s piercing open eye on him; Smaug’s gaze shifting from the Merp’s terrified face to the crystal he held in one hand. The Merp let out a scream as his eyes bulged in his head.

Suddenly; a rumbling growl escaped Smaug’s chest as he turned, and went bounding on all fours across the Wasteland straight for the Merp that held his treasure; a dark look coming over the dragon’s face.

“ _No_!” Junko leapt out from the rocks’ cover as Smaug’s gigantic form whooshed right by there. His knuckle-busters lit up, he grabbed and held the dragon’s forelimb just above the wrist’s base in the split-second that the claw had touched the ground. Smaug screeched in surprise as he was yanked, falling to the ground with a violent thud. Quickly getting up, his uninjured eye was blazing with outrage as he turned his face on the wallop who’d grabbed him. In the same second Smaug’s glare had found Junko, the other Storm Hawks save Stork started yelling, running straight at Smaug as the dragon looked around.

The adolescents were all upon Smaug in seconds, hitting at his hide for all it was worth. Most of the arrogant pests’ attacks on his scales were pathetic and useless, as they crawled over and bit at him like fleas! But Smaug found that the miserable redhead boy Aerrow, was somehow managing to angle his twin blades’ strikes _just_ right so that they successfully sent messages of pain through the cracks of Smaug’s scales.

Stork took the opening he had, as he stumbled the rest of the way down the bottom of the rock wall. He wasted no time, rushing straight across the Wasteland’s ground for where the _Condor_ lay crashed.

Smaug roared furiously as he thrashed his body with tremendous strength, sending the bothersome wretches flying off of him like shaking off parasites! But before Smaug had even properly righted himself, he felt Piper drawing the power from their bond to herself again. The girl ran fast along the spikes of Smaug’s spine, power positively crackling at her fingertips; making straight for where Smaug’s huge head was twisting fast on his neck. As Smaug’s roving eye saw where Piper was, she swung her fist at his head. Another shockwave exploded outward with a BOOM as the blow connected, and Smaug roared aloud at the new surge of pain.

Piper stumbled back to the ground, now twice as drained after her second exertion. She couldn’t keep this up.

“ _Piper_ -!” Finn and Junko were both cut off with a cry when Smaug sent them flying with a vicious swipe of his huge winged-limb. The blonde human and wallop smashed into a low wall of rock, the impact instantly knocking them both unconscious – Finn was just lucky that Junko took the brunt of the bone-crushing blow, whilst Finn had collided right behind him with the wallop’s rib cage.

Piper craned her head up with a slight groan, as Smaug slinked towards her, the dragon’s terrifying shape looming above her. His open eye blazed furiously, his teeth were bared viciously. The shining glow of Smaug’s fire was already travelling from his chest up his neck, as he turned his head to look at where Aerrow was running to help his friends. The boy noticed too late to be able to escape, Smaug opening his flame-lit jaws, intending to finish the miserable wretch once and for all…

HONKK!

Smaug snapped his jaws shut at the sound and whirled his body in a roaring flurry, just in time to avoid having the operational ship collide painfully with him from behind. The Storm Hawks on the ground all looked up with spreading smiles, as Stork sent a two-finger salute down at them through the glass windshields.

Soaring low, the _Condor_ didn’t touch the ground, but braked and hovered a few metres above it. The Storm Hawks in the Wasteland all went sprinting straight for the ship, which was opening its Skimmer bay. Radarr, and a dazed Junko carrying Finn over his shoulder, went ahead, but Aerrow and Piper both lingered for a moment. With one exchanged look and a nod of their heads in understanding; they unleashed the Lightning Claw and one more blast of Piper’s bond-power, together in a combined attack directed into the ground. The force of the great shockwave instantly raised a vast wall of rock in front of Smaug as he’d pounced, blocking him with an almighty crash from the _Condor_. The dragon roared as he furiously moved to climb right over the wall.

Smaug was only hindered by a couple seconds; but that was all the time that Aerrow and Piper needed, climbing up on the _Condor_ into the Skimmer bay as well. The second the last Storm Hawk was onboard, the _Condor_ went blasting away in a speedy blur; not a split-second too soon, as Smaug came swooping furiously down upon the spot where it had just been.

“That Velocity Crystal was a _very good idea_!” Stork shrieked at the helm as the _Condor_ hurtled fast, in a slightly upwards-angled trajectory. Within seconds, the ship was coming above the cloudline again. There, it slowed and levelled off under the night sky. On the bridge with all his teammates, Aerrow sighed pleasantly with relief at their escape. Finn was audibly groaning as he regained consciousness. But Piper wasn’t feeling so relieved just yet. That had been _too_ easy…

Piper’s fears were answered almost straight away, when the sound of a furious roar called out loud to the _Condor_. Right behind where the ship was flying, the equally-huge dragon was flying straight towards the ship, wings pumping furiously.

“This… _is not good_ ,” Stork murmured dreadfully.

“He is _not_ getting Piper!” Aerrow growled defiantly, ready to go fighting off Smaug all over again.

Piper scowled to herself as she tried to think of a way they could get Smaug off their tail, before he took the _Condor_ down again and killed everyone onboard but her. An idea came to Piper’s mind as she remembered she wasn’t the only thing onboard that had been in Smaug’s treasure-hoard.

“Piper, where are you going?” Aerrow called after her as she sprinted down the hallway in her dishevelled princess dress.

She just called optimistically back to him before she was out of earshot, “I have an idea!” She wasn’t sure if it would work, but it was worth a try if they didn’t want Smaug to leave nothing left of them for anyone to bury.

* * *

Smaug was closing the distance between him and his fleeing quarry, wings pumping relentlessly. One eye was blazing with the dragon’s maddening fury, the other was already getting ready to open its swollen lids a crack; glaring with murder after the thieving mortals’ ship and intending to treat them just as well!

Smaug was getting closer to the _Condor_ now that the ship no longer had enough juice to give another burst of that super-speed. Then Smaug’s keen eye; that instantly recognised a single coin of his precious treasure anywhere; caught the tiny, shining green glimmer of the welding crystal being thrown from a window on the ship’s side, falling with gravity towards the Wastelands…

Smaug’s good eye shifted with the speed of light between the falling crystal and the ship that held his other treasure being stolen from him. He could only get to one in time. Smaug’s snarled bitterly, _hatefully_ , as he instantly realised the Storm Hawks’ – Piper’s specifically if he’d recognised that pink-gloved arm at the window correctly – strategy to throw him off. Then the dragon dived after the falling treasure, giving an infuriated roar.

Smaug made a beeline for the falling crystal. The clouds pressing around him were just giving way to the Wastelands’ ashen-dark colours, when Smaug got close enough to catch the tiny crystal in his hind-paw. The dragon then curved out of his dive into a climb, shooting towards the cloudline. But when he emerged above the clouds again, Smaug found no sign of the _Condor_ , anywhere within range of his eyesight all the way to the horizon. Nor could be find enough traces in time to follow before the ship’s trail went cold. Eyes blazing in his skull like fireballs, Smaug was left to roar his uncontainable fury to the open skies. The noise of the dragon’s powerful roars carried for leagues around on the wind.


	13. Aftermath

After her rescue from Smaug’s lair, Piper had been more than happy to get out of the now-ragged princess dress she’d spent the last week in, and back into her old hand-stitched clothes. She’d also been pleased to have the sky-blue crystal shard that had belonged to her father, back around her neck where it belonged; having been separated from the thing when Perry had switched their clothes.

One of the first things that had happened after the Storm Hawks had escaped Smaug, was all the guys had exchanged warm hugs with Piper, overjoyed to have her back – Stork had made a rebuttal about risk of dragon-pox infection during his hug, which wasn’t fooling Piper for a minute. After the reunion cheer was over, the guys had started telling Piper what had happened on Terra Klockstoppia after Smaug had taken her. Apparently, after she and Smaug had gone, Perry had decided that it was time she took on more responsibility, and assumed full control of Klockstoppia. The Regent meanwhile, had been assigned to judging a certain paint-drying tournament, along with a _few_ of the other chores on that long list he’d assigned Perry earlier.

 _Atta girl, you tell him_ , Piper had thought with a smile upon hearing that part. Before the guys had left, Perry had offered Aerrow Klockstoppia’s support with getting Piper back, in any way they could help. Aerrow had declined, not wanting them to suffer Smaug’s wrath. Piper couldn’t argue with that decision; because even if Smaug had kept his word not to harm Klockstoppia, she wasn’t willing to run the risk of him bending that rule or finding a way around it, if they provoked him.

Now, as the _Condor_ sailed lazily on the early dawn-purple skies several hours after Piper’s rescue, the guys had all hit the sack to catch up on the sleep they’d lost tonight. But Piper remained awake on the bridge, a cup of hot chocolate in hand, her eyes staring off into nowhere as she thought back to her week as Smaug’s captive. She barely even noticed Aerrow coming in.

“Hey,” Aerrow said as he stood right next to her seat at the table.

“Hi,” Piper greeted him as she looked up, smiling at him.

“Couldn’t sleep, huh?” Aerrow said.

“No, it’s not that,” Piper replied dismissively, “it’s just… I keep going back over that last week.”

“You wanna talk about it?” Aerrow asked as he sat at the table, directly opposite Piper. His face looked mature far beyond his years in the instant that he asked that question.

“I’d rather not, Aerrow, maybe another time…” Piper murmured, without looking up for more than a fraction of a second. Aerrow frowned in concern for his friend, as this behaviour was quite unlike Piper. “I want to sort through this stuff myself before I share it with anyone…”

“Piper,” Aerrow said somewhat sharply, but still with concern. He slightly leaned forward, his green eyes imploring her, and Piper was a little surprised at this sudden shift in him. She was also surprised by the soft tone Aerrow spoke in as he pleaded her: “Something’s bugging you. Even before Klockstoppia, you hadn’t been the same in a while. The Piper I know never would have made that deal with Smaug.”

Piper was taken by surprise at what Aerrow had said, and she was momentarily torn about what to do. She’d known that this would have to come up sooner or later, but she’d hoped that it could just wait a while, especially after everything that had happened this last night. However, Piper knew that Aerrow was right when he’d said that she should talk about it. Feeling the shame, the guilt of it all coming back to her, Piper hung her head with a sigh as she prepared to explain herself to Aerrow.

“Aerrow,” Piper began, barely lifting her amber eyes; “I gave myself to Smaug to save Klockstoppia, because I felt guilty…”

“Huh?” Aerrow murmured, confused.

“I was guilty over what happened to Gundstaff’s terra,” Piper elaborated. An almost distraught look creased her face as she remembered what had happened to the giant’s terra. She should have suspected the dangers of overusing the bond before the incident with Stork and the Gravitron, but she’d used it anyway. And it had brought Smaug _destroying_ Gundstaff’s home and everything he’d had. Piper continued as she met Aerrow’s eyes: “And after that, I was just so scared of the chances it could happen again. I thought Smaug could see another market-town or something else because I was there, and it’d be all my fault!” She lowered her head, her locks of indigo hair half-hiding her eyes from sight as she finished: “That’s why I made the deal with Smaug. It seemed like if he had me with him, then I wouldn’t be putting anyone else in danger…”

Aerrow hesitated to answer, bring up Smaug’s increased attacks over the week he’d had Piper with him. Piper’s thoughts were on the exact same thing, as she groaned out in an almost self-scolding tone: “When Smaug took me to his lair, I felt so _stupid_ with myself! And now because of me, five more terras are destroyed!”

In the moment after she’d finished her explanation, Piper looked miserable; her face cast away, eyes looking to the floor. She was surprised to feel a reassuring grip on her shoulder. She looked up to see it was from Aerrow, one hand on her shoulder as he leaned over the table towards her.

“You did what you thought was best,” Aerrow said softly. His green eyes held Piper’s amber ones as he reassured her further: “You were trying to save more people from Smaug. I know you, you’d never have made that deal if you’d known it would go wrong.”

“But I _should_ have known it would go wrong, Aerrow!” Piper shot back sadly.

“Hey, we’ve made mistakes before and we’ve learned from them, right?” Aerrow said, shooting a reassuring grin that Piper found comforting. “If you want to stop Smaug from hurting anymore people, then we’ll work on finding a way to stop him once and for all.” That was about all the comfort and confidence-boost that Piper needed; giving her leader and best friend, a warm, reassured smile.

Shortly afterwards, Aerrow went back to his room, telling Piper he’d be in there if she needed him. And Piper was left on the bridge with her thoughts, considering ways they could try to stop Smaug. Smaug couldn’t be beaten by sheer strength or a trap; he’d already proven too strong and too cunning for both. But maybe there was some material, Piper thought; or some crystal, that could breach Smaug’s natural armour…

Piper’s visions also came to mind – the ones she got whenever she made physical contact with Smaug’s odd scale. They had to mean something. The first two visions had shown Piper; Smaug burning a wooden town on a lake (which she’d never seen before, and hadn’t found was known to exist anywhere in Atmos). And the second vision had shown her an arrow, with a very _familiar-looking_ crystalline jewel in its head; being fired into an exposed, scale-less opening in Smaug’s chest, dealing a wound that had looked fatal.

And there was the third vision, which Piper had seen during her imprisonment, when Smaug had repeatedly touched her to his odd scale to feed on the bond’s power. Unlike before, when the vision had been slightly different for each of the first two times; Piper had seen the exact same vision over and over in the last week. She thought it was perhaps because of the shorter time lapse between contacts, as she remembered what she’d seen in the vision…

 _The first thing Piper saw was a rack, holding three identical, huge dark-metal arrows; as a hand in knight-like armour picked up the nearest projectile from the stock. The arrows were the exact same kind that had shot Smaug at the burning town in her other visions; the only distinction being that only_ one _of the arrows, at the bottom of the rack’s stock, had that clear-coloured jewel filling the space in its head._

_Almost immediately, the armoured man was at a giant ballista-like contraption with the arrow he’d taken; and Piper saw that he was on a white-stone rooftop, the corpses of his fellow men strewn on the floor. As the man was fixing the arrow into the ballista’s shaft, an unpleasantly familiar roar sounded on the wind. The armoured man wheeled the mounted ballista’s aim; following the silhouetted dragon as it swooped low over the fire-ravaged city, the smoke and steam obscuring the creature from view. Piper didn’t know this city any more than she knew the wooden town on the lake, but she noted from this city’s mostly-white towers and stone rooftops (most of them on fire or reduced to skeletons of fresh rubble), that they couldn’t be the same place._

_The ballista-man, whose face Piper could now clearly see, fired the notched arrow. The projectile went shooting through the thick grey fumes that blotted the sky from view… Smaug’s silhouette suddenly came flying right out of the haze, just as the arrow twanged right off the front left-side of his chest._

_The man on the rooftop reached for the next arrow from the rack; the last one besides the jewel-headed arrow at the bottom. Piper saw towers’ rooftops explode as Smaug flew overhead through the smoke; the destruction adding to the flames that were already engulfing the city, as screams rose into the air. The man aimed the mounted ballista again, and fired. The arrow shot high through the air above the perishing city. Piper saw it twang rather hard on Smaug’s side, before rolling away along his body; as he passed overhead._

* * *

Terra Cyclonia was a tall, dark, impressive fortress at the heart of the red-skied realm; it towered above all the smaller twisted crags underneath the neverending thunderheads, with the formations seeming to bow down to the dark Cyclonian domain. Almost all of the terra save for its base, was a huge monstrosity of dark metal; centuries of radicalised industrialisation having left almost nothing remaining of the original terra, from which the Cyclonian Empire had sprung.

In the dark, foreboding throne room, the only source of light as the gaunt figure stepped in; were the flashes of crystals being violently fused together, by the many mechanical arms working at the dais, where the Master of Cyclonia stood with her back to the armoured man.

“Master Cyclonis,” the Dark Ace said with a humble bowing salute.

“Dark Ace,” Master Cyclonis softly greeted him in her high voice, without turning round; the only visible gesture was the movement of her head, past the collar-mane of eerie spikes that crowned her neck and shoulders.

The Master’s tone was slightly sour with disappointment when she next spoke; but it was forgiving to say the least, compared to the unforgiving treatment her other minions got for their failures: “I understand that we have lost Outpost Alpha to meddlesome Sky Knight squadrons, while it was under _your_ guard…”

“Yes, Master,” the Dark Ace confirmed; his neutral tone surprisingly humble, compared to the veteran Talon’s viciousness on the battlefield. “It was destroyed by the Storm Hawks. Though there is more news.” The Dark Ace’s red eyes looked up from underneath his black eyebrows at his Master, who still didn’t turn around. She had specifically instructed the Dark Ace to look out for anything such as this; a Storm Hawk missing, or something else out of place amongst their squadron. “One of the Storm Hawks’ numbers was missing. _The girl_.”

Master Cyclonis’s purple eyes widened, though it couldn’t be seen with her back facing her loyal minion. Now that was _very_ interesting news. “Was she now?” Master Cyclonis murmured, interested; as she turned round from her dais to face the Dark Ace. Then, Cyclonis turned her head back to the dais in front of her; and with a wave of her hand, the Master brought up several violet-glowing images, projected from the dais into the air before her. They were images from various places – Smaug’s attack on Terra Agora, and his attacks on other places over the last few months; pictures of both the dragon himself, and of one particular Storm Hawk who’d kept showing up …

Cyclonis had been hearing a lot about both Piper and Smaug. Some particularly interesting reports about the incident on Terra Agora, when Smaug had attacked but was driven off without casualty. And then the recent reports of Smaug carrying a _human girl_ with him as his attacks had seemed to get worse. Cyclonis currently didn’t know for certain exactly what it was this meant, but she saw potential here. _Very great potential_ , she thought, as her purple eyes narrowed and a nefarious grin spread on her face.


	14. Battle of Sky's End

The _Condor_ hurtled through the immense storm systems desperately, going between the cyclones’ twisting wind-forces. Lightning flashed through the darkened air around the ship as it struggled to pull free of one typhoon’s powerful pull, only to fly straight towards another. Stork screamed loudly at the helm, as the ship slowed and was dragged backwards, straight towards the eye of the swirling storm.

“Grab onto something, guys!” Aerrow called out to everyone as the whole ship shook around them. Pipes were creaking, their joints hissing steam under the pressure.

“ _Can’t… hold it together_ …!” Stork grunted at the helm, struggling with all the strength in his hands to take control.

“I got you, Stork!” Stork looked back at the sound of the voice, one second before Junko was lightly pushing him aside, taking command of the helm. To Stork’s amazement, the wallop’s strength won out against the storm; Junko took the _Condor_ forcing its way out through the great tornado’s twisting walls, and within a few seconds, the ship was sailing safely away. The storm’s thunder and oppressive darkness were rapidly giving way to comforting daylight. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as they got clear of the storms.

“Good work, you two.” Aerrow congratulated Stork and Junko with a smile, then turned his eyes onto the sight beyond the bridge’s windshields. “Now, any idea where we are?” The region outside was thick with banks of dark-green clouding all around, while jagged barren rocks that looked like nothing had ever grown on them, jutted out below.

“ _Way_ off-course,” Piper murmured, looking at the map on the table. “ _Here_.” She pointed right to the marked red line that encircled the known regions. “We’re at the very edge of the charted Atmos, Aerrow,” she said, looking up. “A place called Sky’s End.”

“Yeah,” Stork murmured, suddenly at Piper’s side, looking at her before giving everyone else his bulging-eyed stare of dread. “ _Our_ end! More likely.” Across the table, something caught Finn’s eye as he pulled the map towards himself; looking at the sigil and the writing in the bottom corner.

“’ _Here_ _there be dragons_ ’?” he read. Junko and Radarr’s faces both crossed with fright. Piper saw their reactions and quickly reassured them with reason:

“Relax, guys, those pictures are just decoration,” she said dismissively, her voice calm and soft. “The only dragon that’s been seen in hundreds of years now is Smaug. We don’t have anything to worry about meeting any dragons out here.”

“Then… anyone want to tell me what _that is_?!” Aerrow pointed, wide-eyed. Sure enough, outside the _Condor_ ’s windshields; a large red dragon that the Storm Hawks had never seen before, was flying on the green skies.

“ _Not good_ …” Finn squeaked out in a very high voice. As if in answer, the dragon swerved in its course, coming straight for the _Condor_ ; a deep, grating shriek of a roar hissing out from the creature’s lipless jaws. In the brief space of time before the dragon reached them, everyone on the ship could see that this beast looked as different from Smaug as its roar sounded. Pupiless red eyes glowed in its very short-necked head, whilst a tail no more than half its armoured body’s length draped out behind it.

Roaring again, the dragon reached the _Condor_ , smashing its large hind-claws down from its turkey-shaped body. The force of the attack sent everyone on the bridge sliding along the floor, crying out. Piper looked upward from the floor, through the bridge’s skylight, in time to see the dragon’s silhouette flapping upwards to the air with a growl – then suddenly, Finn’s wide-eyed face was filling her field of vision.

“Let’s get out of here!”

A second later, the dragon came pounding down on the _Condor_ again, shaking the ship hard. Though rather tough, the dragon’s attacks were nowhere near as ferocious nor intelligent as Smaug’s were. By comparison, Piper actually found this dragon’s attacks _sloppy_.

“Stork, evasive manoeuvres!” Aerrow called over to the helmsman, who was already acting.

“Aye-aye!”

“Junko, Finn, _to your Skimmers_!”

A few moments later, three Skimmers flew away from the _Condor_ onto the green skies. The trio were expecting the dragon to at least regard them as they soared outward – but the creature ignored them rather dumbly, keeping its attention on the _Condor_.

“It’s not noticing us,” Aerrow murmured as he looked back at the beast. “Finn, get its attention!”

“Aye!” Finn pointed and fired his energy crossbow, the blue-glowing shot aimed for the dragon’s back. The energy bolt dissipated on the dragon’s dull-reddish hide, but it got the beast’s attention as expected. Turning its red gaze upon the three Skimmers, the dragon pushed itself free of the _Condor_ and came for them.

“There’s something on its torso!” Aerrow exclaimed; seeing the tiny, blue-glowing circular hole on the dragon’s underside. Then, shouting into his radio: “I’m going to aim for that… belly-button looking thing!”

“ _Aerrow, dragons hatch from eggs_!” Piper snapped over the radio. “ _Even if that thing’s real, it can’t have a belly-button_!”

“Well, then… Finn, Junko-” Aerrow called out to the other two Skimmers “-you distract it while I am for its _imaginary_ belly-button.” He emphasised the _imaginary_ word, rolling his eyes.

Sure enough, the dragon went for Junko and Finn like a fish to hook-bait. As the roaring beast was distracted chasing Finn (and successfully getting a bite out of the back of his pants); Aerrow and Radarr’s Skimmer flew directly underneath the dragon’s belly. Aerrow leapt up from his ride and unleashed a blue energy-bolt from his twin lightning-blades; hitting the glowing target on the belly square-on. Touching back down upon his Skimmer, Aerrow looked up as the dragon’s whole body seemed to seize up, the blast’s blue energy blazing over it. Then, the dragon was falling right out of the air as the life seemed to go out of it. Junko and Finn cheered as the creature fell.

But the dragon’s fall took it whooshing vertically past, in full view of a dirty-looking trader’s ship. The eyepatch-wearing pilot at the wheel shared a shocked look with his tapeworm-like crewmate; before wheeling his ship 180 degrees around, flying off in the opposite direction.

As the Storm Hawks came down to the jagged, lifeless rock of a terra where the dragon’s body had fallen; they couldn’t help but feel _disappointed_ at how easy taking this beast down had been, compared to escaping and fighting off Smaug. Gathered round the fallen thing, the squadron could see up-close that this new dragon was about the same size as Smaug, perhaps a little smaller. Though still very elegant, its body was somewhat more chicken-like in shape than Smaug’s. A purple crest decorated its head, its muzzle was more lion-like than crocodilian, and the tail and wingspan were proportionately shorter.

“Huh, we actually took down a dragon!” Finn exclaimed, grinning a little. “Sweet!”

“I didn’t think dragons could have brass vacuum engines and titanium turbine drives,” Junko murmured aloud as he and Piper inspected the dragon’s jaws.

“They don’t,” Piper answered with a hand on Junko’s shoulder, both of them looking at the metal piece Junko had removed from the jaws. “It’s a _ship_ …” Their attention was drawn by the sound of Radarr chirping. He was frantically pointing to the glowing-buttoned belly; it was hissing like a hatch opening. Finn and Stork winced fearfully. With a few more clicks, the belly section circularly fell away on a hinge, revealing a dark, pipe-like tunnel to the dragon’s inside. Aerrow had his hands on his back-mounted blades as everyone heard footsteps. After another second, a muscular figure climbed out of the hatch. He wore golden armour that evoked the image of a dragon, and had a circular hat over his head. The strange man didn’t seem to notice the Storm Hawks right away, as the first thing he did was look despairingly at the dragon-wreckage he’d just crawled out of.

“Everything is _ruined_!” he groaned loudly in a gruff-sounding voice. “Years of work!” Then the man finally rounded on his surprised audience, to growl out: “ _You’ve doomed them all_!” He was a black-haired man with gold eyes that, together with his dragon-themed armour, brought the unpleasant thought of Smaug to Piper’s mind; making her physically wince.

“Sorry about your ship,” Aerrow apologised to the man. “But you attacked us first!”

“And exactly whom have we _doomed_?” Piper asked. The man grumbled defeated, before responding.

“It’s true that I attacked you first,” he admitted, “and for that I… I beg your pardon, as I see now that you’re the Storm Hawks.” He gestured with his eyes to the silver Storm Hawk medallion on Radarr’s clothes-piece. “But I have _good reasons_ for my actions,” he insisted; chest puffed out and finger pointed upwards, almost like a patronising teacher, as Piper stared, unimpressed.

After a short moment thinking with a hand to his chin, the stranger said, wagging a finger; “I need to show you something…” He started off into the barren landscape as if to lead them on, then he suddenly stopped and turned back to the baffled squadron as though he’d remembered something. “Ooh, by the way, the name is _Rinjin_ ; last of the Dragon Knights!” Aerrow looked over at Stork, who just shrugged his shoulders in confusion; before the squadron followed after Rinjin, heading away from the fallen dragon-ship.

* * *

It was stormy-dark as night near the border of Sky’s End, at the old shack of a stopping post, when a one-eyed sky sailor walked in.

“I just seen, with me one good eye,” he proclaimed loudly, garnering all the laughing patrons’ attention; “a _dragon_ , took down by the _Storm Hawks_!” Everyone reacted with surprised murmurs, even though superstitious talk of dragons were prevalent in this part of Atmos. But none showed more interest than the dreadlock-haired captain at the bar, who turned with a surprised growl.

“Dragon, you say?” Captain Scabulous addressed the sailor directly, the pirate’s eyebrow raised above his one good eye. Then, turning with a sharp-toothed grin to his fellow Murk Raider sat next to him: “Eyeball, take a crew to Sky’s End and return with a report.”

“Right away, Captain Scabulous,” the broad one growled as he finished his jug, before walking out right past the one-eyed sailor who’d brought the news.

“I’ve lost three ships to that _cursed creature_ ,” Scabulous growled to the sky-sailor, who listened. ”More than a _little_ of my own skin,” he added with a snarl, looking down at his metal claw of a left arm. Scabulous didn’t seem to be addressing the sky-sailor anymore as he murmured aloud: “With the guardian gone, _who knows what treasures await when he thumbests_ …”

A loud cackle echoed out from the watering hole a moment later.

* * *

Rinjin had led the Storm Hawks away to a seemingly-specific clearing in the area, where he stopped and started explaining to them.

“My dragon-vessel was used to frighten away any ship that came too close, taking advantage of the fact that people in these parts are _superstitious_ ,” he told them. Pointing back over his shoulder to the dark cave behind him: “It was the best way to keep my little ones safe…” Rinjin turned round to the cave and, cupping both hands to his mouth; he let out a high, trumpeting call. A shrill chirp echoed back from the dark cave; a second before several shrieking, green- and copper-coloured creatures that the Storm Hawks recognised on instinct, came swarming out of the cave like bats on their winged forelimbs.

“ _Dragons_!” Stork pointed with a shriek like their impending doom was upon them, as the creatures flew over an unfazed Rinjin’s head towards the group. Aerrow’s response was automatic. Leaping into the air, he unleashed a blue lightning-bolt from his twin blades at the dragons. The bolt didn’t hit any of them, but the creatures instantly scattered, squeaking, at the attack, most of them flying straight back for the cave they’d come from.

“No, wait, _stop_!” Rinjin pleaded loudly with his arms raised. Most of the tiny dragons flew back into the cave, but one scuttled along the ground to hide behind Rinjin’s legs. Aerrow and the battle-ready Storm Hawks instantly stopped, confused as they looked at Rinjin.

“The dragons are not dangerous,” Rinjin half-insisted, half-pleaded to the group. The Storm Hawks looked at the small dragon cowering behind Rinjin’s legs, the creature’s large eyes looking frightened, and the adolescents’ initial hostility halted.

“The dragons are truly _harmless_ ,” Rinjin half-insisted, half-scolded, gesturing to where a few of the baby dragons were flying high above them. “Even more-” his gold eyes looked angry “-they’re now _defenceless_!” One of the dragon-hatchlings was approaching Radarr on its flapping wings, the youngling creature’s face growing bright and innocent now that the danger had passed.

“I thought dragons disappeared from Atmos _hundreds of years ago_ ,” Piper said, seriously puzzled.

“They _did_ ,” Rinjin said gravely. “The skies of Atmos were once _dark_ with dragons! When Atmos built wings and took to the skies, dragons were considered a deadly threat that had to be stopped! They fought back in self-defence, only to be hunted… to _extinction_!” Rinjin spat the next part with disgust in his tone: “ _Bedtime tales of, of dragon wickedness_ filled young minds, and hardened young hearts! The age of dragons was _over_.

“So,” he finished, “when I came across a clutch of unhatched eggs, I knew it was my destiny to care for them. In doing so, I have learned that these are not beasts, but friends.” He scratched the head of the dragon at his legs, the hatchling practically panting for affection.

Looking closer now, the Storm Hawks saw that Rinjin’s hatchlings were as much unlike Smaug as Rinjin’s dragon-ship were. The younglings were about half the height of a grown man, with their reptilian skin being copper-bronze and reptile-green colours. When the hatchling with Rinjin crouched at a certain angle, the Storm Hawks could see it had the same unmistakable serpentine quality to its build, as Smaug had. The hatchlings’ faces were more like puppies’; with their big, wide, round-pupiled eyes and the small muzzles. They had a strange reptilian down, crowning their heads and running the length of their spines, in place of Smaug’s spikes.

Rinjin gestured out to the craggy landscape around them as he told the Storm Hawks: “This place has been the dragons’ sanctuary against those who would hunt, or _harm_ them.” He glared a little angrily at the last two words, reminding the squadron of their earlier attack on him.

“Then you don’t know about the grown, _live_ dragon that’s been running amuck on the skies,” Aerrow told Rinjin neutrally.

“And he has plenty of _dragon wickedness_ ,” Finn added, his tone unhelpful.

“ _Hmph_ , I have heard the _rumours_ coming this far out from the Atmos,” Rinjin snorted dismissively, frowning.

“They’re not rumours,” Piper insisted, stepping forward. The dragon hatchling at Rinjin’s feet remained slightly shy to the newcomers as it still sensed their uncertainty, even if immediate hostility had gone. “There’s a fully-grown, _intelligent, talking_ dragon in Atmos named Smaug, and he’s been destroying ships and devastating terras to take their gold and rare crystals!”

“We’ve seen him ourselves,” Finn said.

“Barely gotten away with our _lives_!” Stork supported grimly. Rinjin scowled at them all, though he seemed more troubled than angry, before speaking again.

“I have never heard of such wild tales as a dragon that can _speak_ or comes for _gold and crystals_ of all things,” Rinjin spoke slowly, brows furrowed. “But what I know is that _these creatures_ -” he looked down to the affectionate dragon at his legs “-mean no harm, and need to be protected.”

The Storm Hawks looked at the adorable hatchling themselves, then up at its fellows circling in the air. They knew what Rinjin had said about these younglings being harmless was true, but after what the Storm Hawks’ brushes with Smaug had taught them, Aerrow remained concerned…

“Can you excuse us for a minute?” Aerrow asked Rinjin politely, before leading his squadron several metres away. They huddled together to quietly discuss.

“So what do we do about this, those little dragon-babies are _harmless_ ,” Finn pointed.

“Finn’s right,” Aerrow said. “Whatever Smaug is, _those_ dragons are innocent babies that haven’t harmed anyone, and we’ve just taken down the ship that was defending them.”

“Who’s to say they won’t change their ways when they get bigger?” Stork said gravely. He voiced exactly what more than half the squadron were thinking.

“They _seem_ friendly enough,” Junko commented jovially, agreeing with what Aerrow had said. So at that, the Storm Hawks broke up their meeting and turned back to a frowning Rinjin, who awaited their response.

“Rinjin, we _won’t leave_ until we’ve helped you fix your ship,” Aerrow declared to the Dragon Knight resolutely. Gratefulness passed over the man’s hat-shadowed face. Meanwhile, the same dragon that had been curious about Radarr was now practically cuddling him, brushing the animal Storm Hawk’s face with its own. Radarr growled unenthusiastically at the contact and moved away, but the hatchling wasn’t giving up.

“Easy, my small friend,” Rinjin soothed Radarr calmly, observing the whole scene. “Rebuilding trust is _just as important_ as rebuilding this ship.” At that same moment, the dragon hatchling suddenly came upon Radarr with a non-aggressive shriek, and was hoisting the ferret-creature into the air; the youngling’s hind-claws holding Radarr’s shoulders. Finn pointed and softly laughed, whilst Aerrow, Piper and the others all likewise looked up with smiles. The dragon-hatchlings started playing toss-and-catch in the air with Radarr, then they took him on one of their backs, flying elsewhere to the green-clouded skies.

But when Radarr and the dragons returned from their fun flight a few minutes later, Radarr was near-frantic; chirping and shrieking to the Storm Hawks about something, and soon initiating a word-gesture game to make them understand.

“First word,” Piper translated as Radarr put up one finger. Radarr pointed a finger to his bulging-wide open eye.

“ _Look_?” Aerrow guessed. Radarr shook his head.

“Uh… _see_!”

“ _Saw_!”

“ _Seesaw_!” Radarr drooped his long ears at the last one as if to say, _really?_ He pointed at his wide eye again.

“Eye?” Radarr practically threw up his arms at Piper’s answer, giving a chirping cheer. “ _Eyeball_!” Radarr nodded, then raised two fingers.

“Second word,” Finn registered. Radarr made a gesturing line from his eyeball with his finger.

“Eyeball!” Radarr made a purring groan; he’d already said that. “But you just… Okay…” Radarr instead tried making a sawing motion.

“Piston!” Then after a pause of confusion: “ _Eyeball piston_?”

“Ooh, oh, ooh, the death throes of a Three-Armed Swamp Gobbler?” Radarr groaned, rolling his eyes again, before resuming the sawing-motion.

“Reaching? Grabbing?”

“Sawing?” Radarr chirped to confirm Finn’s answer. “ _Seesaw_!”

“ _Eyeball saw_!” Aerrow pieced together.

“ _Eyeball saw_?” Stork sounded piqued. “Is that some kind of torture device?” Radarr shook his head, moving straight to the fourth word with as many fingers up. He pointed straight to the dragon hatchlings circling overhead in the sky.

“Um, _dragons_?” Junko guessed. Radarr shrieked, putting both thumbs up. “ _Yes_! This is fun!”

“ _Eyeball saw dragons_!” Finn realised.

“ _Eyeball saw dragons_ …?” Stork echoed. Piper realised.

“Eyeball saw the dragons!” The Storm Hawks looked with dread as she exclaimed: “That means this place is about to be swarming with Murk Raiders!”

* * *

At the sky-sailors’ watering hole, Captain Scabulous was playing a similar game with Eyeball.

“Second word. Seesaw! Saw! _You saw_!” Eyeball stopped the motion to nod in confirmation, then put up all three fingers on his left hand. “Third word. Sandwich? Swamp Gobbler!” Eyeball made a flapping motion with both arms. “Wings? _Wings_! You saw… _wings_?”

“Ooh-hoo, almost,” Eyeball said, before making a loud roaring impression.

“Ah-ha!” Captain Scabulous clutched one fist together, a grin across his face as the answer clicked. “The _dragon_!” Eyeball cheered, hands thrown above his head.

“Yes!”

“You saw… _dragons_?” Scabulous hissed intently for confirmation, coming in closer.

“Ooh-hoo, yes, Captain,” Eyeball confirmed goofily. “A whole flock o’ young hatchlings!”

“Assemble the fleet!” Captain Scabulous yelled out through the watering hole, following up his command with a loud cackle.

* * *

Unbeknownst to the Murk Raiders, another was already flying straight for Sky’s End; another dragon besides the ones that Eyeball had brought back news of. He was propelled on by desire both to reclaim a stolen piece from his treasure hoard (and to punish her miserably for her actions!) and to claim revenge upon the insolent whelps who had crossed and stolen from him.

The night the Storm Hawks had stolen from and escaped him, Smaug would have turned an entire terra to ash to make them suffer for taking from him; had he not suddenly felt so, so _weak_ after they’d escaped. He knew it to be a side-effect of being separated from Piper after a week feeding on their connection to make himself stronger.

But it mattered not now. As soon as he’d recovered his strength, Smaug had set out to find the Storm Hawks and the treasure that was his alone! He’d mostly followed word of their passages, trailing them from one sector of the Atmos to another with utter relentlessness. The mortals who’d crossed paths with Smaug had more-than-happily spilled word of the Storm Hawks’ recent passing to him; right before he’d killed them all and eaten their ashes once he was done with them.

The Storm Hawks’ trail had been on the verge of going cold, when Smaug had heard word that they were headed into a storm system near Sky’s End, further out to the corners of the Atmos than Smaug had ever bothered to go before. Smaug had flown straight for there; calculating from the neighbouring region’s geography that there was no other place for the filthy thieving wretches’ rusted ship to escape from the typhoons to.

And when Smaug found them, he would burn them all to ashes to teach his little princess what happened when she defied him; right before he took her back, and sealed her safely away where she would never see the light of day again until he’d seen her soul wither away!

* * *

The Storm Hawks had all set hard to work, repairing Rinjin’s dragon-ship before the Murk Raiders arrived, whilst Radarr had led the dragon hatchlings back to the cave where they’d be hidden from sight. Though as everyone worked, while they never voiced it nor showed any other indication; all the Storm Hawks save Radarr were troubled over what would happen to the hatchlings after this was over. Rinjin had insisted they were harmless, and the Storm Hawks had seen it with their own eyes; but what about when the hatchlings grew up? Would they still be harmless then, or would a whole flock of more destructive monsters like Smaug be unleashed on the Atmos?

“Well, Rinjin, we’re almost done,” Aerrow told the Dragon Knight, after much hard work on repairing the joints and systems (and, in Finn’s case, brushing the metal teeth).

“Just a bit more time to patch up the hull, and…” Rinjin trailed off at the sound of ships flying overhead. He and Aerrow looked up to see _five_ Murk Raider ships coming in, casting shadows from high up in the green-tinted sky.

“Time’s up,” Aerrow said. “Now, we fight.”

“ _Surrender the hatchlings, or I’ll burn ye where ye stand_!” Captain Scabulous’ amplified voice shouted over the megaphone-like speakers of the lead ship, _The Blood Crow_. Aerrow and Finn were already taking to the air on their Skimmers, flying for where the five ships loomed; whilst Stork and Piper flew on the _Condor_ under the cover of the clouds.

“Uh… at least with this many ships, it’s impossible to miss,” Finn said nervously, seeming none too confident about the odds. Bringing out his Skimmer-mounted crossbow, Finn fired two blue energy-bolts with the flick of a switch; hitting the centre of _The Blood Crow_ dead-on.

“ _Big mistake_ ,” Captain Scabulous growled on his ship’s bridge, eyes narrowed. Aerrow and Finn were about to dive straight at the fleet to take them down; when a loud, bone-shaking roar exploded through the air. Aerrow and Finn stopped their rides, Stork stopped the _Condor_ ’s approach, and Junko looked up to the sky; as the Storm Hawks all recognised the sound.

One second after the roar, the dragon to whom it belonged came flying out of the thick clouds at great speed; his molten fiery eyes shining, his beastly silhouette a dark, refined shadow under the sun as he flew towards the ships.

“Is that…?” an awestruck Rinjin began to say, on the ground.

“ _Smaug_ ,” Aerrow murmured lowly, on the skies.

“ _You_!” Captain Scabulous growled at the huge dragon’s arrival; turning as if he could glare through the hull at the beast. Smaug came upon the fleet, pushing a smaller ship with his hind-feet to send it smashing straight into _The Blood Crow_ ; which triggered a loud explosion between them. The smaller ship instantly went down.

The remaining ships started firing at Smaug, but the energy-projectiles dissipated in constant flashes on the dragon’s crimson hide. Smaug flew by another ship’s cannon-deck, bathing it in the orange fire that erupted from his jaws. The Raiders at the cannons were vapourised before they could scream.

“Um, _what do we do now_?” Stork asked in a gravely-high voice over the radio, wide-eyed as he and Piper watched Smaug massacre the Murk Raiders.

“We can’t fight off both the Murk Raiders _and_ Smaug…” Aerrow murmured aloud, floating on his Skimmer. Quickly assessing the situation, he tried to figure out a new Plan B.

“Well, at least he hasn’t seen _us_ yet,” Finn murmured gratefully. About three seconds after he’d said that, Smaug was flying away from another ship straight towards the two Skimmers. They barely swerved out of the path in time to let Smaug shoot past them, his jaws snapping shut on air. Smaug began a semicircle back around, bringing him flying in front of the _Condor_. As he shot by the windshields, Stork and Piper felt the intelligent gaze of Smaug’s molten eye momentarily flash over them. A shiver ran up Piper’s spine at feeling that dark gaze again. Smaug’s completed turn brought him flying back towards the Murk Raiders.

Only three ships remained as Smaug came towards the fleet. Smaug swooped upon the top of a larger ship, running along the ship’s spine without stopping his momentum. Another ship’s cannons shredded its comrade’s hull trying to hit Smaug, who leapt off the ship’s end back to the air; the ship was left to crash and burn. Oh, how Smaug relished the bloodlust and the fighting, as his fiery eyes shone and a savage grin spread on his muzzle. He’d been surprised to find not just the Storm Hawks, but a whole fleet of Murk Raider ships, though right now he didn’t care for why either were here. Murk Raiders were always marauding, scavenging scum, and Smaug was pleased with the opportunity to both make further sport for himself and taste the seldom-savoured smell of burning Murk Raider.

Twisting, Smaug made towards another ship, when a blast of energy harmlessly hit his scaly brow from elsewhere; making him stop, hovering. Whirling his blazing gaze, Smaug saw two Storm Hawks including Aerrow; flying above him like pestering flies. Growling out loud as he craned his long neck, Smaug unleashed a firestorm from his jaws, which the two sky-rides barely avoided at full-speed.

In the moment the Storm Hawks had Smaug distracted, _The Blood Crow_ trained its weapons on Smaug’s armoured back. Captain Scabulous wasted no time having the ship’s two metal harpoons fire, aimed clearly. The projectiles gave a _very harsh_ clang against the scaly hide as Smaug cried out in pain and surprise, the dragon momentarily jarred before regaining his hover. The harpoons hadn’t even left a scratch on Smaug’s back. Twisting round, Smaug looked at the ship that had fired; fiery eyes bright, savage and gloating. He flew fast towards it, pumping his wings-

“ _YE’LL NOT KEEP THE DRAGON HATCHLINGS FROM ME_!” the amplified voice of Captain Scabulous screeched. At those words, Smaug’s eyes widening in surprise, then he halted in a hover again. His great brain was whirling and processing through the calculations. _Dragon hatchlings_ , the pirate captain said?! Smaug was well-aware that Atmos had seen its own _allegedly-dragon_ creatures in the past, but they’d supposedly disappeared ages ago; so what wretched trick was this?!

“ _Dragon hatchlings_?” Smaug echoed questioningly in his powerful voice. The dragon said in a crooning, black, patronising tone: “Don’t humour me, _Captain_.” Before Smaug could give much further thought, a carrier ship that was about the same size as him came brushing rather brutally across his back behind him; shooting away in a diagonal line at high-speed. Enraged, Smaug glared at where the _Condor_ flew fast.

“ _And THAT is for MY SHIP_!!” Stork screeched triumphantly back at the dragon who’d twice before cut his ship out of the sky; whilst Piper held hard onto the railings, hoping Stork would come down from this crazy-high before they brushed too close to death.

“FIRE EVERYTHING!” Scabulous yelled to his crew. _The Blood Crow_ started firing volleys of energy-blasts at Smaug. The dragon roared back at the ship, accepting the challenge, then flew straight towards it. Smaug reached _The Blood Crow_ faster than the ship could bank, swooping and landing on top of its hull, hind-claws digging into the metal.

After checking that he had a firm hold, Smaug pumped his open wings hard to drag the ship in the direction that he wanted it to go, against its own propulsion: towards the other remaining ship. As Aerrow and Finn regrouped on the air; Smaug slowly but not-slowly-enough, dragged _The Blood Crow_ straight into its comrade as he flew over the latter, a loud _BOOM_ sounding as an explosion ripped through the ships. Both vessels went drooping downwards like dropping flies, smoke trailing behind them in their descents, whilst Smaug climbed away.

As the ships fell in different directions, Smaug stopped his ascent, hovering. He turned his gaze onto Aerrow and Finn looming far away, his eyes obsessively alight with his bloodlust-fuelled intent. The two Skimmers wisely fled in different directions, whilst Smaug swooped straight after them. The dragon was a thin silhouette behind them, but rapidly closing distance.

“Finn, Stork, Piper,” Aerrow called over his Skimmer’s radio; “we need to keep Smaug occupied until Junko and Rinjin are finished with the repairs!”

Whilst Finn and Aerrow fled from Smaug, making complicated air-manoeuvres to try and shake the dragon off; _The Blood Crow_ ’s crash-course took it careening down to a barren, spiky-peaked landscape, kicking up a cloud of dust as the ship violently slid to a stop, lopsided. Captain Scabulous and his few-dozen or so crewmates came stumbling out of their defeated ship’s wreck, groaning and clutching their aching bodies’ parts.

Scabulous glared, sharp teeth bared bitterly, up at where Smaug was flying high above. That was _twice_ that dragon had taken down his ship! But the captain’s thoughts left his defeat when his one eye was drawn by the sound of a chirp ahead. A quarter-mile down the hill they’d crashed on, Scabulous could see shapes sheltering in the shadow of a cave. _Dragon hatchlings_ , dozens of them; all looking up at the sky with wide, frightened eyes. A greedy grin spread across Scabulous’ face as he saw his prizes sitting utterly defenceless!

“Ah, the dragon hatchlings are ours for the taking, boys!” Captain Scabulous yelled, rousing his crewmates as he pointed with his metal cutlass. “ _Get them_!”

Rinjin and Junko were both finishing the dragon-ship’s repairs, when they heard a rumbling sound. Looking up from their work, their eyes widened – dozens of Murk Raiders were charging down the grey hill towards them, yelling battle-cries.

Up in the air, Aerrow saw what was happening on the ground. They had to do something, Rinjin and Junko hadn’t repaired the dragon-ship, and the Murk Raiders greatly outnumbered them!

“Finn, get down there and help Rinjin and Junko keep the Murk Raiders back!” Aerrow yelled.

“Aye!” the sharpshooter responded; more than happy to get away from Smaug, who was relentlessly flying after him. Finn’s Skimmer dived, shooting vertically downwards. His gaze following the Storm Hawk’s descent, Smaug’s eyes momentarily widened in awe at what he saw lying far below – some sort of construct in the image of a dragon, but far too different from any drake Smaug had ever seen. The calculations of the suddenly-increased probability that Atmosian dragons were alive here ran through Smaug’s brilliant mind, before he turned his physical efforts to cutting down Aerrow’s Skimmer.

With a slashing motion, Aerrow unleashed a blue blast from his lightning blade at Smaug’s face, aimed to try and blind the dragon if not just get his attention. Smaug ignored the blast that dissipated on his scaly cheek, and shot right past Aerrow, headed straight for the _Condor_. Smaug flew upon the ship before Stork could move it to escape, Smaug’s hind-claws digging into the ship’s roof - the dragon was so quick that he hadn’t properly slowed, hitting the ship with such force that it was jarred several metres backwards by his momentum. Stork and Piper both cried out as the ship shuddered. With the _Condor_ momentarily shaken, Smaug twisted his body, throwing the ship down on a collision-course with a high-reaching peak looming nearby. The ship hit the top within two seconds, falling on a downward trajectory with smoke trailing.

Smaug quickly dived after the falling _Condor_. Aerrow shot downwards after him, his streamlined ride going faster than the huge dragon. As he vertically passed by Smaug’s flame-coloured eye, Aerrow swiftly shot a blue bolt into it before Smaug could react. The dragon cried out in rage, thrashing in the air as Aerrow surpassed him. Smaug’s face was boiling with fury as he glared after the wretched worm. Aerrow levelled off before he could crash into the ground, Smaug doing likewise, chasing after the Skimmer.

Below Aerrow and Smaug, Piper and Stork were emerging from the crashed _Condor_ ; looking upward when the dragon roared. Piper looked across the landscape to where Rinjin and Junko were battling a horde of Murk Raiders right by the hatchlings’ cave. Seeing the threat, Piper’s face set in determination, and she went running towards the fight. Stork groaned miserably behind Piper, before following after her.

Above the grey land, Aerrow barely managed to avoid another fiery torrent Smaug unleashed his way. It was only when Smaug had almost burned two of the wings on Aerrow’s Skimmer; that the dragon unexpectedly dipped away from sight to the green clouds, leaving Aerrow to look back in surprise.

* * *

Dozens of Murk Raiders fought the four Storm Hawks and Dragon Knight with violet-glowing weapons, trying to get to the cave mouth they defended. Inside, the squealing hatchlings shrank further away from the threat outside.

Junko punched out several Raiders’ lights at a time with his knuckle-busters glowing, and threw several more through the air at their comrades. Piper traded blocks and blows with her crystal-staff, sending many Raiders flying backwards. Radarr leapt upon Raiders savagely, making them scream for their mothers as the animal Storm Hawk clamped his jaws on their limbs. Rinjin was fighting with physical combat to protect his little ones from the foul pirates. Finn shot Murk Raiders down at long range with his energy-crossbow. Seeing a vicious strike coming at close quarters, Finn raised his crossbow like a shield just in time to block the energy-cutlass. Captain Scabulous’ face was less than a foot from Finn’s, glaring over their locked weapons with his one eye.

“You _stole_ something o’ mine last time we met, _matey_ ,” Scabulous growled, his voice deathly low. Finn performed an improvised disarming move with his crossbow, sending Scabulous sliding several feet backwards with a kick.

“Oh, yeah?!” Finn challenged, pointing at the captain. “Well, _you_ were an awful dancer! You waltzed like you have two left feet!” The fearsome pirate’s expression shifted to one befitting a heartbroken child, giving out a hurt gasp like a six-inch pin had stabbed his heart. “ _You’ll pay for that remark_!” he screeched in a cracked voice, before coming at Finn with a loud cry.

In the middle of the two sides’ fight, Smaug’s roar seemed to come out of nowhere, before his shadow swept over the battlefield. The Murk Raiders all started fleeing, screaming in fear, as Smaug swooped closer towards the ground.

Piper leaped clear of Smaug’s oncoming hind-claws, which missed her by an inch – and instead caught Radarr, the screeching ferret-creature being taken away as Smaug climbed, flying away from the battlefield.

“ _Radarr_!” Piper called after the much-valued Storm Hawk. Aerrow saw what was happening from on his Skimmer, and a stormy expression immediately came over his face. Swerving his ride, he went straight for where Smaug was flying a great distance away.

His mind whirring madly, Smaug swiftly found a high-up hill to land on; throwing his catch forward to the ground, before he came in, landing just behind. After seeing the dead-looking metallic _fake_ of a dragon, Smaug had scented familiar hormones in the many scents on the air near the battle-site – his calculating mind had instantly recognised those hormones as being _disturbingly similar_ to the smell of his own kind. On the ground, the ferret-creature made to scamper away from under Smaug like a caught mouse. Smaug’s foreclaw caught him flat to the ground.

A deep, very threatening growl rumbled in Smaug’s chest, as he brought his head very close to Radarr. The dragon’s hot breath washed over Radarr’s wide-eyed face looking at the predator looming above him. But instead of killing him, Smaug angled the side of his head directly over Radarr’s face, so that Radarr had nowhere to look but at that fiery yellow eye; which was sharply intelligent, but wild almost with madness. A pleasant, dreamy sensation overtook most of Radarr’s senses, and everything but the bright eye began to blur and become meaningless to him.

Peering directly into the creature’s mind, Smaug rifled fast through Radarr’s memories like skimming through the pages of a picture book. He took in all the recent information quickly. Smaug became aware of the so-called _Dragon Knight_ , as the filthy human audaciously dared call himself! And then a great wave of emotion swelled within Smaug to learn of the hatchling dragons, hiding in the cave the Storm Hawks were defending. However, it was anything but a positive emotion that Smaug’s mind responded with. The feeling may have been laced with a slight pleasure to know that his great kin weren’t entirely extinct apart from him. But more than anything else, Smaug felt what he supposed was the way many humans felt when their desperate grasps on illusions of power crumbled. It was what any animal felt to know another of their kind was encroaching on their territory. _Threatened_. And that was not all either. Smaug had seen how these puppy-faced but definitely _dragon-related_ hatchlings had been so friendly, keening, so easily-terrified into fleeing from a fight. _And it_ _DISGUSTED_ _him_ to see that such weakling, mongrel dogs were what survived his mighty breed!

Smaug turned his gaze back onto the Storm Hawks and Murk Raiders, who had resumed their fighting – Smaug noted the Raiders seemed to be fighting that much more desperately, now they knew he was here and ready to wipe out the last of their miserable brood. Flying off the rock, Smaug already knew _exactly_ what he was going to do, leaving Radarr lying dazed behind him.

Captain Scabulous saw Smaug flying towards the battlefield again, and instantly broke off from his crossbow-cutlass duel with Finn. “ _Retreat_!” he screeched to his men. A second before anyone could respond to the command, Smaug’s fire was cutting a line of burning flame through the battlers from one side of the plain to the other. The Storm Hawks leapt out of the way just in time to avoid being roasted alive, but many of the Murk Raiders weren’t so lucky.

The pirates that remained all started fleeing for the grey hills, running away into the barren landscape. Though Scabulous stopped to spare a hateful glare back, as if to say, _this isn’t finished_. In less than fifteen seconds, only the Storm Hawks were left standing by the cave.

Circling low over the battlefield, Smaug sensed the power of the bond building to Piper, who was balling her charged fists. The dragon bared his vicious teeth down at her, seething to see _her_ once again. Aerrow glared up at Smaug, in what the dragon thought with a disgusted mental scoff was supposed to be a dominant display by mortals’ standards. Though Piper was building an impressive amount of power, Smaug dismissed her foolish hopes to stop him.

Piper sent an invisible shockwave that could have made a mountain tremble, blasting out from her hands to the air. Smaug banked to let the blast shoot past him, before swooping upon the Storm Hawks, roaring; sharp-toothed jaws open, eyes shining…

Her fists aimed to the ground, Piper let out a residual energy-blast, propelling her directly towards Smaug. Specifically, right towards the golden-scaled front of his chest, as she outstretched her hand to touch it. Piper moved too fast for Smaug to act, and the moment her hand touched the clear-silver scale, a flash erupted as a vision consumed them both.

_The wooden town was a watery, ruined wreckage; more like a mass grave to whomever hadn’t survived its destruction than anything habitable anymore. What buildings (or at least their skeletons) had survived the blaze that had blackened all the wood like charcoal, were now crumbling into the lake waters, their structures weakened by the fire. Driftwood filled the waters as the waterlogged shells were slowly rotting and falling away to the lake._

_As hard to tell as it was for most, Piper recognised the same town she’d seen burning in her earlier visions. On the other end of the bond, Piper felt an impression of Smaug’s own emotions which indicated he too recognised this place._

_But lying close to the edge of the town ruin, partly submerged in the waters – was the body of a dragon. And not just any dragon, but indeed, Smaug himself._

_Smaug’s huge body lay draped across the wooden ruins, the whole front of his torso above the waters. The stocky hind legs were also visible, splayed out dead. The same nock and fletching of the giant arrow that had hit him, stuck out of the opening in his chest where it had penetrated. Smaug’s long wings were arched, their tips pointing almost to the sky above the decaying shack remnants they rested on; while his tail just draped away underwater, beyond sight to the depths. At the end of his long neck, Smaug’s head lay with his eyes closed and his jaws hanging open, as if from a last cry during a painful death._

_But what was most curious about Smaug’s body, was the way it looked for a corpse (if it_ was _a corpse, that is). Piper thought his flesh should have been rotting away to the waterlogged conditions, but instead, the dead Smaug’s crimson- and golden-scaled skin was... almost cracked and dried up, in a manner. Patches of it looked like they were closer to stone than flesh; as though some horrid grey form of gangrene, or perhaps some stony-grey fungus, had set in all over Smaug’s body under the scales’ outermost layers. This looked very, very_ close _to dead, but it certainly didn’t look like any natural decomposition. Nor did it look like decomposition at all so much as the beginnings of cement hardening…_

_But Piper couldn’t wonder further on Smaug’s state before a gentle sound on the lake’s water, originating away from the town wreckage, caught hers and Smaug’s attention in the vision. A small wooden boat was slowly rowing in through the icy fog on the vast lake. Two silhouettes were in it – one standing and rowing, the other sitting – ever gently going right towards the edge of the burnt town where Smaug’s body lay. They talked quietly, inaudibly to Piper’s ears._

_As they emerged through the fog, and the rowing man slowly brought the boat to stop against the rotted wooden town’s edges; Piper was shocked to see the man’s face. It was a long but rather handsome face, with long brown hair, and a moustache that was thickening to indicate the man was growing out a beard. It was the man she’d seen shoot the arrow into Smaug’s chest. Smaug seemingly recognised him too, by the way Piper felt his own emotions flare along the bond. Besides now lacking the sweat and dirt upon his face, the man wore golden armour; consisting of decorative pads, leather, and chainmail visible at the lining. It looked rather lordly on him. The clothing was surprisingly similar to that of the man at the ballista in Piper’s last vision. Only then did Piper notice how surprisingly alike, though not identical, that man and this one’s faces were…_

_The rower’s companion meanwhile, was sitting rather comfortably in the boat. He wore thick grey robes, and a pointed hat upon his head, with a five-foot wooden staff held in one hand poking up in the boat. A curly, grey beard came down from below his hat. As he turned up, Piper saw his ancient-looking face, which seemed both youthfully-jovial and incomprehensibly-wise._

_“I apologise that no-one else would take you out here, Master Gandalf; many folk are still very fearful of the Dragon, even a dead one,” the rowing man said to his companion._

_“Indeed,” the old man said. His voice was incredibly elderly yet powerful; it sounded kind, strong and sharp-tongued all at once to Piper. “Though it would not do so well to forget one’s fears and go charging in headfirst either._

_“Which reminds me, how are relations with the Dwarves of Erebor coming along with the Men of the North having rebuilt?” the old man, Gandalf, asked. He had a very genuine, kind spirit to his question; as he stood up in the boat, on his staff like it were a walking stick._

_“Quite well,” the boatman murmured, smiling under his moustache. “We were off to a somewhat_ difficult _start, with Dain ruling as King Under the Mountain after King Thorin’s death in the Battle, but Man and Dwarf have been settling these last few months. Old friendships have been reforged as we’ve re-tilled fields, planted new trees, rebuilt houses in the lands of Dale and Erebor.” A warm, genuine smile spread through Gandalf’s thick beard, like this were the simplest, best news he could have wanted to hear. It seemed to last an eternity, but in a pleasant way; before Gandalf’s facial features naturally faded to grimmer matters. The rowing-man looked down at the dragon’s partially stone-greyed body before them._

_“It has been nearly eleven months since the Dragon was slain,” the row-man said. “Since he destroyed this town and the Mountain was reclaimed from him.”_

_“Indeed, it has…” the old man in grey murmured, looking down at Smaug’s body himself._

_“This is not what I would have expected the fallen Serpent’s body to look like,” the row-man added, his eyes not leaving Smaug’s body. He looked troubled, a dread building like a small storm over his face as if he feared something; that this menace were not truly vanquished._

_“No…” Gandalf agreed, those ancient-seeming grey eyes never leaving the dragon for a second as he too seemed brooding, concerned. “It is not. I have never seen any craft of magic that could do such a thing as this before…”_

_“You fear that the Dragon is not vanquished?” the row-man asked, looking up to the old grey man with fear._

_“Oh, no, I said no such thing as that,” Gandalf assured his companion in a suddenly-gentle, jovial tone; as though he were clearing up a misinterpretation about the weather forecast. But then his eyes became brooding again as they shifted back onto Smaug._

_“However, this is no craft of nature, this strange affliction upon the Dragon’s body,” Gandalf murmured, gesturing with his free hand to the bizarre stony complexion that seemed to be taking over Smaug’s body. “Smaug was the greatest dragon of the Age, the last great fire-drake known to live in Middle-Earth-” Gandalf turned to the row-man with a grave look in his ancient features “-he was said by some even to be descended from Ancalagon the Black himself…_

_“When I met with Thorin Oakenshield in Bree and arranged the dwarf-prince’s Quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain, I did so with the fear that such a creature could be used to_ devastating _effect in the Enemy’s hands…” For a moment, Piper had the strangest impression that Gandalf was talking to someone else listening, besides the bow-man with him. She almost didn’t notice the flash of frightening red along the bond as Smaug had also heard what Gandalf had said._

 _“Questions!” Gandalf suddenly murmured, already looking in a different direction from Smaug’s body, out to the shore. The row-man seemed confused before Gandalf said: “I have questions that need answering! I must see the others of my order about this matter; if this is near what I fear it may be, then they must be alerted with great haste. Trust me, Lord Bard, they will know what to do.” A few moments later, the row-man_ Lord Bard _was gently pushing and rowing the boat away from the rotten wooden town, away from Smaug’s body; no doubt rowing himself and Gandalf back to shore._

Piper heard her name being called out as she returned to her body in a momentary fuzz of mind. As her vision refocused and her mental senses fully kicked back in, she heard a rumbling groan that she recognised as Smaug’s. It sounded like his thickly-built chest were just behind her as she got up.

“Well,” Smaug’s terrible voice purred right behind Piper. She turned to see the dragon rising onto all fours, snaking his head on his long neck above her, “ _that_ was _most educating_!” Smaug’s eyes blazed in his skull and he bared his savage teeth at what he’d learned from the vision – of the wizard that had _admitted_ to being responsible for the filthy dwarves’ return for Smaug’s treasure; the revelation of Thorin Oakenshield’s death, which brought Smaug great pleasure; and the Lonely Mountain’s reclamation by the dwarves, which brought Smaug a great bite of anger and bitterness. It was then that Smaug remembered the girl who had shown him that vision, whirling his fiery eyes onto her tiny form below him. She looked up wide-eyed, like a lamb in the sights of a wolf.

“Piper!”

Piper and Smaug both turned their gazes to see Aerrow, Finn and Junko running straight across the ground for their friend. Smaug let out a savage roar before swiping his long tail at them, aiming to crush their bones to dust.

“Look out!” Junko, remembering the last time he’d been struck by that tail; leapt in front just in time to take the brunt of the blow. The strike sent the guys hurtling more than a dozen metres away, landing the length of Smaug’s body across the grey plain; unconscious or severely-dazed.

Before Piper could try to run towards the guys, Smaug’s tail smashed into the ground directly in front of her, sending an earthquake-like tremor through the land. The meaning was clear. Piper had nowhere to go as the tail remained there like a wall, and she felt Smaug’s hot breath washing over her back.

“ _Piper_ …” Smaug purred her name in a suave, bone-chilling tone. Whirling around, she saw Smaug’s huge eye looming six feet from her body, regarding her. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you since you _ran away_ from me.”

Piper glared back into the fiery yellow orb, angry. “ _Run away?_ ” she echoed bravely. “I was rescued from you!” The dragon’s face pulled into a sneer, but Smaug didn’t press it further. He craned his head away on his neck, turning his attention to a place that immediately made Piper anxious – the dragon cave, where the hatchlings were hidden.

“Tell me, Piper, why do you defend those dragonkind hatchlings, _hmm_?” Smaug questioned, giving her a mind-piercing look. Piper tried to hide any reaction to learning Smaug knew about the hatchlings. “Have you already forgotten my words of what dragons are? Or do you foolishly dismiss them as _nothing_?!”

“What do you mean!?” Piper spat in denial; though she could already feel the words Smaug had spoken when she’d been his prisoner pressing through the jelly-like haze of her mind.

“Oh, I think you know very well what I mean!” Smaug growled darkly. “Do my words of what my great and terrible kin are suddenly mean nothing to you? Or were you perhaps merely enchanted by some sordid thought to keep the adoring little whelps for yourself, perhaps even to housetrain them as _pets_?!” he snarled disgustedly.

Piper suddenly shook her head as though shaking her thoughts clear – which she was. “You’re not getting those hatchlings, Smaug!” Piper shouted defiantly. With another ground-aimed blast, Piper shot high over Smaug’s head through the air, coming down on two feet in a protective stance in front of the cave mouth.

“How are you any better than me or the Cyclonians for defending those creatures?” Smaug pressed in his compelling, dark voice, undaunted. The dragon saw the shift in Piper’s features which told him he now had her. “After all, what do you think will happen when those pups grow up? How many more of _me_ will you be letting loose on the Atmos, to tear and smash and burn it all down?!” Piper barely noticed Smaug’s head and neck snaking low to the ground around her, like a snake ensnaring its prey. He murmured in a rumbling, whispering volume: “How many of the mortals you care so much about will _die_ because _you_ defended these creatures?! And then…” Smaug’s lips, distorting over his snapping teeth, were practically a foot from Piper’s ear now “…how will you tell yourself you’re any better than _the Cyclonians that took your parents_?”

That hit a certain pressure point within Piper, bringing anger breaking through the confusing fog of Smaug’s words. Her amber eyes were burning defiantly as she wheeled round to look Smaug in the eye. “You’re _not_ going to get those hatchlings, Smaug!” she shouted.

“Oh, I don’t think you will stop me in either case!” Smaug growled frighteningly at her, reeling his head upwards as a dark look passed over his face. But then he was completely calm as he said, “It matters not.” Suddenly, Smaug turned his molten yellow gaze back onto the cave, with a look in his eyes that promised murderous intent. “These miserable whelps that you so dearly care about _will disgrace my kind no longer_!” Mentally stumbling for a second, Piper spoke just before Smaug could spring for the kill.

“What kind of _disgrace_ would make you want to murder _your own kind_ to get rid of it?!” Piper shouted up at the dragon.

“ _Those_ cretins are _NOT my kind_!” Smaug snarled venomously back at her, his fiery yellow eyes white-hot with rage.

“They’re dragons,” Piper pointed out, genuinely needing to know the root.

“They are _weakling, mortal-befriending wyrms_!” Smaug raged so fiercely that spittle could have been flying from his jaws, his eyes shining bright. “ _Nothing_ compared to a true dragon’s breed!” Quite abruptly, Smaug’s blazing gaze, and all its rage and fury and intent, were directed back onto the cave. “And rest assured, I will not allow their degenerate weakness to shame my kind for _another second_!”

Before Piper could do anything, Smaug, with speed faster than a thought in her head could process; snatched Piper up in his foreclaw and threw her away across the grey ground. Aerrow shot an energy bolt from his blades at Smaug to get his attention. But Smaug came right upon the small cave, roaring, the light of his fire shining at the back of his throat…

_ROAWRRR!_

Smaug’s jaws snapped shut. He looked back to where the sound had come from, as did the Storm Hawks. Everyone saw the rust-red dragon flying low above the spiky-grey landscape. It unleashed another roar from its lipless jaws, which didn’t have to be a real vocalisation for any intelligent creature to interpret the challenge.

Within the ship modelled after a dragon, Rinjin narrowed his gold eyes with determination as he manned the ship’s controls. Whilst behind him, Radarr was holding the entire ship’s repairs together by two pipes on either side of him, the animal Storm Hawk’s eyes bulging under the strain like he were tied in a sideways torture rack.

Grinning savagely and growling at the challenge, Smaug quickly abandoned his immediate task for later. Bounding forward along the land, Smaug took to the air with a downward-thrust of his wings, flying straight towards the fake dragon.

Rinjin piloted the dragon-ship to fly straight at Smaug. Grazing acrobatically right past Smaug, the fake dragon slashed its hind-claws along his unbreakable hide. The Dragon-Dread glared back through a fiery eye at where the fake dragon was now slowing and circling round for another clash.

“Rinjin and Radarr are distracting him,” Aerrow exclaimed as he, Piper and the others watched the dragons’ battle overhead. “Now, let’s get the hatchlings out of here!” The Storm Hawks ran to the dark cave mouth. They were thankful when coaxing out the dragon hatchlings didn’t take as long as they’d feared; five seconds into their attempts, dozens of bat-like copper- and green-coloured shapes were swarming out en masse. Stork, at the centre of the dragon swarm, shrieked as though he were being surrounded by Vulca-Bats.

“I have an idea of where we can take them that they’ll be safe!” Piper shouted to the guys, as they all sprinted ahead along the ground with the hatchlings swarming around them.

Smaug and the dragon-ship locked hind-claws in the air, twirling together in a flurry of reddish colours. As they did, the fake dragon unleashed a red jet of fire from its flamethrower directly at Smaug’s face. The actual dragon roared in fury at the close contact, even if the fire could not seriously harm him. Springing like a viper, Smaug snapped his jaws tight upon the dragon-ship’s wing-joint, evidently aiming to wrench it loose. The wing-limb locked up, and the dragon-ship started falling in the locked dragons’ dance; Smaug falling with it as he held on.

Inside the ship, Rinjin struggled to pull them free of Smaug’s hold. He just managed it before the two dragons could plummet to the grey land below. Smaug, whose glide levelling out of the descent brought him shooting behind the dragon-ship, lashed it with his tail as he flew past, causing serious damage that made the ship’s interior hull shudder dangerously. Regaining its flight, the dragon-ship went flying away. Smaug roared and went after it, quickly closing the distance between them. Coming upon the dragon-ship from above, Smaug buried his hind-paws’ talons deep in the structure’s metal back, putting his full weight down atop it.

The dragon-ship lost its stability like a plane shutting down in the air, falling in its glide towards the ground. Smaug pushed off its back, gliding away; a second before the dragon-ship crashed brutally through a low rock.

No more than a few seconds after the crash, the circular hatch on the dragon-ship’s belly opened. Rinjin and Radarr came staggering out, groaning. Their gazes were drawn to the skies by Smaug’s roar, and they saw the victorious dragon circling, then diving straight towards them. Swooping low, Smaug unleashed fire from his jaws to consume the human and animal, who were helpless to escape in time. But in the _split-second_ before Smaug’s fire could vapourise Radarr and Rinjin, Aerrow’s Skimmer swooped straight out of nowhere and picked them up without slowing. Smaug whirled his hateful gaze; seeing the sky-ride reach the _Condor_ , which hovered in the air again. One thing Smaug’s keen eyesight could clearly pick out at this distance, was Piper surrounded by several dragon hatchlings on the bridge, sending Smaug a teasing wave.

Grinning at the helm, Stork immediately took the _Condor_ shooting away so fast it was several hundred leagues away in a second. Roaring in boiling rage, Smaug twisted and flew after the fleeing ship, furiously pumping his wings hard.

* * *

The _Condor_ flew west back out of Sky’s End, with Smaug pursuing – he was leagues behind the ship, but overcame the initial efforts to shake him off. There were a few comical points when the _Condor_ stopped to refuel, at which the Storm Hawks had impatiently tapped their feet, waiting to be on their way before Smaug caught up. The Storm Hawks made sure to guide the _Condor_ in a zigzag pattern through several intense, specific storm systems Piper had tracked; intended to scatter their trail and give Smaug a tougher time keeping up.

Although the Storm Hawks and Dragon Knight didn’t know when they shook off Smaug, it was after they’d passed through about a dozen of these storms; that the Dragon-Dread had lost the _Condor_ ’s trail, and was left to screech his uncontainable fury to the skies.

When the _Condor_ finally reached its destination, it was close to dawn in the far-off, secluded region of Atmos. The ship landed on the uninhabited rock of a terra that Piper had told the guys they could take the hatchlings to. The rock was surrounded on all sides by a constant storm system which produced eerie, swirling winds and unearthly-looking flashes of light. It had given the gloomy-skied and otherwise-uninteresting terra a haunted reputation centuries ago, which held up to this day among the few sky-sailors who passed by this sector.

Rinjin looked out to the dark-clouded skies and the far-off ring of ghostly storms, the dragon hatchlings at his feet as the swirling winds brushed over them.

“Yes, this place will do quite fine for sheltering the hatchlings until they’ve matured,” Rinjin murmured in his ever-gruff voice, looking back at the Storm Hawks with an approving grin.

“Ataraxi is secluded _way_ out of any nearby sky-traders’ routes, and it doesn’t have any minerals or materials worth mining,” Piper told Rinjin. “So you and the hatchlings won’t have to worry about anything bringing the Murk Raiders _or_ Smaug, or anyone else that might threaten them, looking here.”

“Perhaps,” Rinjin murmured, looking troubled. “But the _beast_ that I saw today threaten the future of dragons proves to me that Atmos needs someone to teach them. To spread the word, to make people understand when the time is ready, that _dragons_ are our _friends_.”

Aerrow nodded sincerely, like it were a promise. With all the terror and destruction that Smaug had caused around the skies, Atmos needed to understand when Rinjin’s dragons grew up that these creatures were not monsters.

“You can count on us to spread the word,” Aerrow said.

Removing his conical hat, Rinjin gave a sincere bow of gratitude to the Sky Knight squadron before him that had aided and done so much for him and his little ones. “Thank you all,” he murmured earnestly. Aerrow nodded back, then he and the others turned on their heels and were walking back towards the _Condor_ , leaving Rinjin and the dragon hatchlings to their new sanctuary.

“Exactly how long do dragons take to grow up?” Finn asked, none too keen about the task they’d just promised they’d do.

“Sixty years,” Stork told him flatly.


	15. Thieves and Bargains

Piper, Finn and Junko watched Smaug’s lair from the same sheltered lookout they’d used when rescuing Piper. The sound of groaning made Piper lower the binoculars and turn around, to see Finn was scratching furiously at the bright-green paint on him which all three Storm Hawks had coating their entire bodies; skin and clothes.

“Finn, _don’t scratch that_!” Piper exclaimed. “We need that high-grade paint to cover our scent so that Smaug doesn’t smell us!” When Aerrow and the guys had come here, they’d had the benefit of being completely downwind of Smaug; but Piper wasn’t willing to risk the wind changing, especially since Smaug had tasted their scents before.

“For high-grade body-paint, it sure… _itches on the skin_!” Finn groaned, unable to keep his fingers off himself.

“I think it feels quite nice, like a suntan,” Junko commented jovially, looking over his painted thick skin.

“Lucky you,” Finn grunted. Piper abruptly shushed them; through the goggles, she saw Smaug’s familiar silhouette coming in on the jagged, grey-wreathed valley. The dragon flew straight towards the familiar crag that hid his lair.

Piper hadn’t wanted to come back here and try robbing Smaug again, after how barely they’d gotten away last time; but they needed a crystal that had been in Gundstaff’s possession before Smaug had sacked his terra. Aerrow had been in an accident (thanks in no small part to Finn’s poor cleaning) and it had left him with just about every bone in his body broken. They’d sealed him in a body-cast, and Stork had Aerrow on a strong painkiller recipe, but they needed something that could mend almost _anything_ to heal Aerrow.

Thankfully, Piper had learned a good deal about Smaug’s homely habits from being his prisoner – he could go for anything between twelve hours and some few days without sleep, but when he did rest; it would be long and lazy. If Smaug was flying back to his lair, that always meant he was about to get some sleep, and that was when it was safest to try slipping under his nose.

Seeing Smaug fully disappear into the cave, Piper looked over her shoulder to address her teammates: “Okay, Smaug is in. Now, we wait here for one hour to let him fall asleep, then we go in, _quietly_ , we get the crystal, and we get out without stirring him.”

“Another hour of waiting?” Finn groaned, still scratching. “Oh, man, _I don’t think I can take much more of this_!”

But Finn somehow did. Once the hour had passed, the three Storm Hawks flew on their sky-rides toward Smaug’s crag lair. They left their rides outside the cave mouth as Piper cautiously led the way in. When they emerged in the treasure-filled chamber, where Smaug was sleeping soundly; Piper quickly noticed that there seemed to be more treasure filling the cavern than before. She also saw that Smaug had let the crystals mix in with the other treasure again since her escape.

Crouching to the ground, ten feet away from Smaug’s closed-eyed head; Piper signalled to Finn and Junko for them to start looking. They both just gave her confused looks; Piper put a hand’s fingers to her forehead in exasperation. _Find the crystals_ , she silently mouthed at them. Finn and Junko’s faces lit up in understanding, both of them shooting Piper thumbs-up; then they tiptoed into the treasure and started sifting through it.

It was a tediously long search as the three looked through the chiming loot-piles, all while trying to make minimal sound. Piper feared that Smaug would wake up several times when the sleeping dragon hissed and grumbled. They’d searched for over half-an-hour, before Piper found what they were looking for; pulling the tiny crystal out of the gold, grinning as she held it to her face and inspected it. _Bingo!_

Piper took the fake replica crystal out of her outfit, and gently placed it amongst the gold she’d found the real crystal in; being sure to smooth the coins over it like soil over a plant, so it would look undisturbed. Once she was satisfied, Piper looked back to Junko, and Finn (who was examining a jewel-encrusted cup). She silently waved her arm to get their attention, showing them the tiny crystal they’d come here for. Finn looked more than pleased to leave as Piper signalled to the tunnel they’d come in through.

But as the green-painted trio silently crept back past Smaug’s sleeping form, Finn just had to start scratching again; until an area on his arm was wiped clean to expose his uniform’s blue and brown colours underneath. Smaug’s rumbling snore instantly shifted as he stirred, growling restlessly as his senses were alerted by the smell of human.

 _Run!_ Piper mouthed the word to Finn and Junko in front of her. The three took off down the dark cave a second later, leaving the treasure cavern behind. Once they’d gone, the dragon quickly settled back down to his dreams of burning some foolish knight alive.

* * *

When Piper, Finn and Junko returned to the _Condor_ with the Nill Crystal in hand, Aerrow had been unenthusiastic to learn he’d be staying the way he was – encased in a comically foot-thick cast from neck to foot, suspended by ropes above his bed – for another _five days_ before the crystal’s healing process finished. Apparently, he’d already counted the ceiling-rivets above his head several times.

Junko had assured Aerrow that he’d be cooking all his food until he healed (Aerrow had only been able to smile politely at that news); whilst Stork had intended to read Aerrow his new tome of Merbian darkness poetry to pass the time. Piper had told Aerrow that until he got better, they were on a course that would keep them well away from any Sky Knight duties; and Finn was assuring Aerrow that after the accident his messy floor had caused, he’d be cleaning much more thoroughly to stop it happening again.

“And no sweeping dirt under the decks anymore,” Finn said, grinning and straight-backed. “By the time _I’m_ done, you’ll be able to see a reflection in every pipe on the _Condor_.” Piper, working next to Finn; gave a disbelieving look, before addressing Aerrow:

“Aerrow it is _very_ important that you remember, as long as that Nill Crystal is plugged into your cast-” she pointed with her pencil to the tiny stone, inserted into a plug-mechanism on the cast above Aerrow’s right ankle “-you can’t move _at all_. It’ll mess up the healing process.” She’d read about and seen pictures in her books of what happened when one moved while a Nill Crystal was repairing them, and the results were pretty gruesome…

Stork said as Aerrow looked increasingly worried, “Seriously, if you move even a _little bit_ , even your tiniest toe-” the Merp’s face turned despairingly-grim “- _your Sky Knight days are over_.” That certainly got Aerrow looking more concerned.

“Let’s just say moving is bad,” Piper said, trying to make it less terrifying. “ _Not_ moving is _good_.”

“Thanks for looking after me, everyone,” Aerrow addressed all of them. “Although, I gotta say, I’m not too sure it was a good idea to steal this crystal out from Smaug.”

“I’ve left a _perfect duplicate_ in Smaug’s lair,” Piper reassured him. “He won’t know the difference until you’re all better, and then we can put the real crystal back.” Aerrow smiled at her. Then a tired yawn escaped his mouth.

“Aerrow needs to rest,” Piper whispered to Finn at that cue.

“Right, rest,” Aerrow murmured as everyone started filing out.

“And remember…” Stork, the last one out; turned back dramatically with an atmosphere that could have been accompanied by a thunderclap; “… _no moving_.” Then he scuttled off. Aerrow sighed as he was left with nothing to do, save look at the ceiling above him again.

“One… two…” he counted the rivets; “three… four…”

* * *

“ _Five_.”

Master Cyclonis turned her head from the huge metal tubes lined in front of her dais. “Place the rod at level _five_ ,” she growled curtly to her minion. Snipe hauled the huge rod off the floor onto his shoulder, groaning from the effort.

“Which is level five again?” he asked.

“To the right,” Cyclonis answered quickly, only turning round again for a second.

“Um… my right… or yours?” Snipe mumbled; not noticing his reckless swinging with the rod knock a radio-like device off a crate. Hitting the floor, the object instantly severed the held-down cable in a shower of sparks. Cyclonis and Snipe both looked upwards, in time to see another huge rod suspended in the ceiling, come falling down.

“Uh oh…” Snipe groaned, wide-eyed.

Cyclonis moved clean out of the way just in time as the rod crashed down. Her furious purple gaze whirled back to the spot where the rod had fallen; where an irreplaceable old crystal of hers had been left out, and was now no doubt crushed underneath the heavy object.

“ _NO_!!!” Cyclonis screeched in pure fury. Snipe nervously shuffled towards his Master, who crouched over the destruction with her back to him. The shift in the room’s atmosphere was instant as her whole figure stilled, before she turned her furious face on Snipe.

“You… ruined… _everything_!!” she hissed out in barely-containable anger, purple eyes _blazing_. The annihilating fury was unlike Snipe had ever seen his Master, usually cold and merciless in her anger; he honestly didn’t know which one scared him more.

“I’m sorry, Master Cyclonis,” Snipe quickly grovelled. His Master’s posture didn’t relax as she turned from him back to the ruined thing. “I’ll fix it. I _promise_!”

“Touch nothing in this room!” Cyclonis cut him off from reaching towards the mess, her purple eyes still alive with anger. “I’ll take care of it _myself_! Call in the Nightcrawlers and ready my ship-” she pinned the frightened brute with her unforgiving gaze “- _or is that too much for you to handle_?”

Snipe quickly nodded his head – then, registering what his Master had said, shook his head just as meekly.

Cyclonis knew exactly what she needed to fix this, and right now, she didn’t even care about how the one who had it would react after the last time they’d spoken to each-other. She would take it from him by force against all odds if she had to.

* * *

The Cyclonian warship hung back at the very edges of the dark valley, whilst the Master flew in alone with nothing but her gravity-defying crystal-magic. A small Nightcrawler guard flew in under the area’s natural cover to look out in case anything happened to their Master. Cyclonis had spent months looking for Smaug’s lair before she’d recently located it.

Smaug was sleeping soundly, dreaming of the glorious bloodbath of battles, when a tiny knock-like tapping disturbed his dreams; threatening to cut through them like a sword through a man’s neck. When the knocking-rhythm repeated, Smaug’s physical face scrunched up in annoyance. After a few more dream-disturbing knocks, Smaug realised that the sound was no dream. His senses quickly awakening to the real world, Smaug snapped his blazing eye open to see where the intruder in his lair was.

Right by the cavern entrance, a thin human girl was _hovering_ off the ground, crystal-energies radiating off of her in waves. She rested one closed hand against the cave wall she’d been tapping.

“ _Knock, knock_ ,” the purple-eyed girl murmured slyly, unthreatened. Smaug recognised her voice in the same instant he saw the Cyclonian emblem she wore, took note of her high-quality clothing; calculated who she was. Smaug was momentarily shocked that the infamous Master Cyclonis whom he’d once conversed with was this _girl_. Then annihilating rage overtook his senses that a would-be thief was encroaching on his home!

Quickly getting up, Smaug bounded towards the girl with a roar; light shining in his open jaws, ready to incinerate her alive.

“I’m here because I need something from you, Great Smaug the Dread,” Cyclonis quickly said in a respecting, clear tone. Smaug came to a halt, snapped his jaws shut a metre short of vapourising her, surprised. The girl bowed her head, as Smaug looked at the worm in a way that _dared_ her to lie to him. She’d greeted him with nice enough manners that no other mortals in Atmos had so far learned to show him; it was probably the sole reason Smaug didn’t devour her now.

“Explain yourself, child,” Smaug growled, his tone dangerous. “ _Quickly_.”

“I need a crystal that I believe is in your store,” Cyclonis said politely, looking the dragon in the eye. Utter outrage immediately detonated inside Smaug. The mortal thought she could waltz into his home at her leisure, then ask to help herself to his hoard!? His intent to burn the witch right there and then must have shown on his face, as Cyclonis spoke very quickly:

“I only intend to borrow it, and I give you my word that I _will_ return it,” she pressed.

“Oh, I’ll just bet you do!” Smaug snarled. “I’ve heard _much_ of how little the infamous Master’s word is worth, unless mortals successfully lie to my face before I eat them! Is that what this unannounced little visit of yours is; do you think to deceive me with your worthless promises so you can steal my treasure for yourself?!”

“Of course not, Smaug,” Cyclonis replied quickly, floating towards the dragon’s face. “I wouldn’t _dream_ of challenging your wit in such a way!” The immediate flattery and lack of dishonesty soothed Smaug, but his eyes retained a threatening look.

“Surely we needn’t be enemies,” Cyclonis said. “The two of us nearly reached an _alliance_ not that long ago.”

“An alliance which, if your memory serves you correctly,” Smaug growled, “I decided was an exercise in futility when your little empire proved it couldn’t keep a ball floating above the air!” A scowl creased Cyclonis’ face, but she didn’t snap. “In fact, give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you _now_!” The fire’s light shone right behind Smaug’s teeth.

“It’s true that Cyclonia’s last demonstration was poor,” Cyclonis said slyly, forcing herself to remain patient, “but I hope that in your _wisdom_ , you’ll grant us another chance to prove ourselves worthy of your friendship.”

“ _Friendship_?!” Smaug sneered in disgust, growling disdainfully: “ _Friendship_ is an offer which holds no value nor sway over a dragon, _Master_! I’m _sorry to say_ I’ll have to _decline_. And now, I have a _pest infestation_ to clear out of my home!” Jaws open, Smaug sprung for Cyclonis to end her. With a battle-cry of a yell, Cyclonis swung her staff, unleashing an energy-shockwave that immediately pushed Smaug’s attack away.

Slamming her staff’s hilt to the ground, a huge spray of gold and treasure burst upwards between Cyclonis and Smaug like a tsunami, blocking Smaug off. With only a couple seconds’ time, Cyclonis pointed her staff like a metal-detector; flying in the direction that its main crystal glowed in. She quickly spotted the tiny green stone she sought, picking it up in her fingers as she soared right over the treasure.

“ _What_?!” Cyclonis’ triumphant expression faded to shocked outrage as she examined the stone. “A _fake_!?” Suddenly, Smaug smashed into Cyclonis out of nowhere, the brute force sending her into a mound of gold.

“A _falsification_?” Smaug growled, instantly suspicious as he keenly looked over the crystal.

“Now, who could have designed a duplicate _that_ deceiving, I wonder?” Cyclonis hissed, getting back to her feet. Smaug’s eyes shifted from Cyclonis to the crystal. He didn’t find any indication that this stone was an impersonation, but why would Cyclonis try to deceive him in such a futile way?

“Unless…” Smaug’s yellow eyes widened; holding a wild, unplaceable look in their molten depths. “ _Those miserable, tub-trading, lake-roaming scum_ have taken it!”

Cyclonis flew straight for the cave exit. Smaug saw where she was going and raced after her. Twisting in her beeline, Cyclonis shot a blast at Smaug’s eye; the dragon closed his scaly lid just in time to shield it. With a swipe of his forelimb, Smaug swatted the flying girl out of the air. She was flat on the ground whilst Smaug bounded past her, out the exit.

The force in Smaug’s blow would have shattered Cyclonis’ bones if not for the magical shield that defended her body against brute force. Looking up from where she’d landed as the dragon’s noises faded ahead, Cyclonis grinned. With Smaug immediately out of her way, she could pursue the only ones who were _nearly intelligent_ enough to pull off that fake Nill Crystal trick – _Piper_ , of the _Storm Hawks_.

As Smaug’s huge silhouette flew away into the night sky, roaring; Cyclonis’ tiny figure flew out of the cave-mouth unnoticed, heading in a different direction. The Nightcrawlers who’d accompanied her flew out from their cover, following her back towards the ship.

When Cyclonis returned, the red-eyed lead Nightcrawler on deck looked up at his Master, on the overlooking bridge. “Destination, Master?” he asked in his whispery voice.

“Find me the Storm Hawks,” she ordered quietly, grinning. The lead Nightcrawler bowed his head obediently. A few seconds later, the Cyclonian cruiser was turning and flying away from Smaug’s lair, fast.

Hidden in the shadow, Smaug’s bright yellow eyes followed the departing battle-cruiser. Once it was far enough away that it wouldn’t see him, Smaug detached from the sharp rocky wall he’d been clinging to like a bat, took to the air; flying after the departing vessel. Smaug grinned at how easily the witch had been fooled when he’d feigned knowing who the thieves were, and now she was leading him to the _real_ thieves without even knowing!

* * *

It was Day Three of the wait until Aerrow was fully-healed. So far, so good, as the worst Aerrow had had, was an itch _slightly south of his back_ that had made him howl desperately for someone to scratch it out. Piper was getting concerned that spending so long cooped up was getting to Aerrow, as he’d complained that the clock on his room’s wall – marking the countdown through the five days until he was healed at midnight – was running three ticks too slow, among other things. But duty had called when a radio-call for Piper had come in.

“It’s great to hear from you, Suzy Lu,” Piper chuckled into the radio, pleasantly surprised by the unexpected call from her friend. “You couldn’t have called at a better time. We’re just circling around Terra Nostrus for now, what about you?” Pure static without reply, greeted Piper from the other end.

“Hello?”

* * *

The Nightcrawler lowered the radio speaker-piece from the tied-up Blizzarian’s face. Suzy Lu’s eyes were distant and blank, glowing violet on-and-off with the hypnotic spell she was under.

With a gesture of her staff, Cyclonis pulled up the image of the isolated terra on the large map-screen. “Search over Nostrus,” she ordered, pointing her staff to the isolated landmass. Addressing her Nightcrawlers directly: “When you find the stone, wait for my orders.”

“Yes, Master,” the lead Nightcrawler hissed with a slight bow, standing straight and formal beside the tied-up captive. “And the Sky Knight?” He looked down at her drooping head.

A few minutes later, three Nightcrawler scouts were flying out on their wing- gear from the battle-cruiser’s bay. Right behind them, Suzy Lu was unceremoniously pushed from the open bay door, falling to the land they were passing over. She grunted painfully as she rolled down the dusty hills.

“What’s going on, eh?” Suzy Lu murmured, looking bewildered at her dusty surroundings as though she’d just woken from a dream. “And what am I doing in the middle of a desert?” She looked up in time to see the Cyclonian cruiser fly away to the early-dawn sky.

* * *

Aerrow was on Day Four, with less than twenty-five hours left according to the clock on the wall. Though everyone was starting to go slightly crazy, as their recuperating leader told them over the tannoy of disturbances he felt in the ship. From having Junko check the pipes for clicks Aerrow heard in the engine pods, to telling Stork the _Condor_ was listing slightly to the portside and then that it needed a couple degrees yaw.

The following night, the three Nightcrawlers went completely unnoticed as they swooped on the _Condor_ , crawling into the vents like roaches. Two of them spied the crew going about their tasks from behind the air vents’ grates. Whilst their comrade waited until Aerrow’s snoring started, before it descended from the ceiling vent in a black blur. It scanned a bright violet ray over Aerrow’s cast-encased body, the information being sent back to its Master’s ship.

Master Cyclonis chuckled at the holographic image, black-nailed fingers to the side of her head. “Oh, this is too good,” she murmured, purple eyes filled with humour. “The Nill Crystal, _and_ Aerrow, defenceless. Hm.” Turning to the lead Nightcrawler by her side: “Ready my ride.” He bowed loyally. “This ought to be fun.”

* * *

“Last dinner in bed,” Junko jovially announced, pushing the platter of cephalopods towards Aerrow’s face. “Fresh, tasty sky-squiddies!” The creatures were cooked, yet still squirmed their tendrils.

“ _Mmm_ ,” Aerrow went along, though his hungry smile was hardly convincing. “Looks yummy, but I’m still full from your Wallopian Wiggler lunch.”

“Huh,” Junko said. “Alright, more for me then.” He tipped the whole platter down above his mouth, crunching and slurping in pleasure as he gobbled the meal. As soon as he was finished, he put a fist over his upper-chest and unleashed a low, long burp. The air from it rolled right over the room, including Aerrow’s face. “Oops. Huh. Sorry.” Junko apologised. Suddenly, the whole _Condor_ shuddered with the force of being hit by something.

“Piper, report!” Aerrow shouted over the tannoy.

“We’re under attack!” Piper exclaimed into her own speaker. The ship shuddered again as it took another hit. Piper looked out through the windshields at the oncoming small fleet which fired energy-bolts at the _Condor_. “The Cyclonians found us!”

“Not just any Cyclonians,” Stork murmured dreadfully, looking out through the periscope. His sight focused on the single royal red-purple Switchblade that led the assault, the purple-eyed rider grinning wickedly under the shadow of her hood. “It’s _her_.”

“ _Attack_!” Cyclonis ordered loudly to her troops with a gesture of her staff. The winged Nightcrawlers fired several more shots at the _Condor_ , making the whole ship shake in the air.

“Why is Master Cyclonis here?” Junko exclaimed, puzzled, as he stumbled onto the bridge. Stork’s hands were trembling as he struggled to keep the helm steady. “What could _she_ want?”

“I’m guessing we’re about to find out,” Piper replied, retrieving a fiery-coloured crystal from her hung backpack.

At that very moment, a large shadow was glimpsed slinking through the nearby clouds like a serpent. The Nightcrawlers looked around at the disturbance, eyes scanning for any sign of something. Suddenly, Smaug flew out of the clouds with a trumpeting roar, his molten eyes shining in the night.

“Make that Master Cyclonis _and_ Smaug,” Stork murmured, wide-eyed; as the faraway-looking dragon flew towards the Cyclonians fast.

Master Cyclonis merely chuckled at Smaug’s arrival. “I was wondering when _you’d_ show up,” she murmured confidently. Then she yelled to her Nightcrawlers, staff raised: “ _Initiate defensive manoeuvres_!” More than half the Nightcrawler fleet immediately broke off to fire at Smaug. Their shots uselessly dissipating on his scales, the dragon unleashed his blazing fire-breath to the skies, meaning to incinerate the flying black annoyances.

“What do we do now?!” Junko exclaimed, looking out at the multiple enemies.

“Finn, stand by at the cannons!” Piper quickly ordered, screwing her fire-coloured crystal into place atop a pole. “This Burner ought to take out the Nightcrawlers.”

“Incoming!” Stork shouted, as several Nightcrawlers came swooping straight for the ship. “Hang on, everyone!”

“Shield your eyes!” Piper shouted, pointing the Burner Crystal out as it began to glow. A blast of powerful golden-yellow light exploded out from the _Condor_ , lighting up the surrounding skies; it washed over the Nightcrawlers, whilst Smaug closed his eyes’ membranous lids against the assaulting flash. When the rays subsided, Smaug directed his fiery gaze onto the _Condor_. The Nightcrawlers were completely unharmed, chuckling at the attack that had failed to harm them.

“Upgraded Nightcrawlers?!” Piper exclaimed. “We’re in trouble!”

“Hm, nice try, Piper,” Cyclonis murmured softly, grinning at the spectacle.

Smaug swooped towards the _Condor_ too fast for it to react; smashing into its side with such force that the ship was pushed several metres through the air. The Storm Hawks on the bridge all cried out as the disturbance sent them falling to the floor. Piper’s Burner Crystal shattered upon impact.

The turret cannons emerged from either side of the _Condor_ ’s bow, Finn and Junko manning them – though when Finn saw Smaug flying way too close above him, and Smaug saw him, the blonde quickly retracted his turret-cannon back into the ship. The wall-panel closed back up just in time as Smaug unleashed his fire on it, bathing that entire side of the ship in orange flames.

Stork let out a low growl for the dragon that had brutalised his ship three times before, not intending to let it do so again. With a sharp twist of the helm, Stork took the _Condor_ veering to the opposite side, trying to pull away from Smaug. Smaug dived at it, hooking his hind-claws deep in the ship’s hull – it stopped the _Condor_ at once.

But while Smaug was preoccupied with the ship, Cyclonis flew forward on her Switchblade, scowling angrily. She aimed her staff and unleashed a rippling shockwave against the target. Smaug whirled his fiery gaze just in time to see the attack, before it blasted him and the _Condor_ several leagues backwards.

Smaug’s claws held firm, but the blast had jarred his grip. With one blast of the engines, the _Condor_ tore free of the dragon’s hold, flying away. Several Nightcrawlers immediately flew after the ship in coordinated pattern. Seeing this, Smaug roared in fury and unleashed his fire on the creatures, forcing them to scatter.

Then Smaug’s gaze turned onto Master Cyclonis’ ride, flying a significant distance away; he would cut the head off the rival snake. To the witch’s credit, she met Smaug’s gaze fearlessly as he flew straight towards her. Taking advantage of being upwind, Smaug unleashed another fiery torrent from his jaws, letting the wind carry it ahead of him towards Cyclonis. The witch-warlord swerved her sky-ride to avoid the flames – just as Smaug had predicted, banking to intercept her changed path. Cyclonis looked, reacting _just_ in time to angle her ride, Smaug sweeping right over her in a bloodred flash. Her Switchblade shot straight towards the _Condor_ , whilst Smaug was already circling to fly towards her again.

Finn and Junko’s turret-cannons had re-emerged, firing at the Nightcrawlers that terrorised the ship. They took down several Nightcrawlers’ wings, sending them floating away on their parachutes, but many still swarmed and fired back.

Cyclonis, a good distance ahead of Smaug, manoeuvred her ride to avoid the turrets’ shots at her as she came at the _Condor_. As soon as she was close enough, with a yell, she shot a violet energy-bolt from her staff at Finn’s cannon, the energy blazing over it. When the glow faded, Finn’s cannon did nothing but click uselessly as he punched the trigger.

"My weapons are out!" Finn cried.

Cyclonis glided away from the _Condor_ in a different direction, Smaug shooting after her. Junko continued shooting at the Nightcrawlers, but the odds were no longer in their favour with only half the firepower.

"There's too many of them!" Finn yelled. Right after he’d spoken, the Nightcrawlers started detaching from their wings, latching on the _Condor_ 's hull like lice.

Feeling the whole ship shudder more violently, Piper sprinted off the bridge towards Aerrow's room. When she arrived, she gasped to see Radarr struggling with his whole body to keep Aerrow from swinging away from the bed on his ropes. She leaped forward just in time to drag Aerrow back into his normal position.

"Keep them out of here," Aerrow told her. "I just need a few more minutes…" He looked at the clock on the wall: 11:40.

"But you've got twenty minutes to go!" Piper exclaimed. "I don't think we can hold them off that long!" Another explosion outside.

"Trust me," Aerrow said very calmly.

Piper was dashing back out of Aerrow's room, but stopped in the hallway when she thought she’d passed something. She turned around – to see two Nightcrawlers emerge from their hiding behind her. Before she knew it, she was surrounded on all sides by Nightcrawlers; hissing as they closed in.

"We're in, Master," the red-eyed member hissed, putting a clawed hand to the side of his hooded head.

" _Aerrow is mine_ ," Cyclonis replied over the Nightcrawlers’ comms. " _The rest, you can have_."

"Yes, Master," the lead Nightcrawler hissed compliantly. All the Nightcrawlers trained their wrist-mounted weapons on Piper, smirking darkly. But Piper smirked back at them, her balled fists at her sides sparking with building power. The lead Nightcrawler noticed something was off in the air too late. With a loud cry, Piper threw out her arms, bringing her hands together in a thunderclap that blasted throughout the hallway; slamming the Nightcrawlers hard to the walls or the floor.

Piper looked around, seeing all the Nightcrawlers out cold from her attack – _almost_ all, as one Nightcrawler’s body from the waist down poked out of a pipe-opening in the wall, the creature groaning. It didn't seem to be aware of where it was until its movements took it sliding the rest of the way into the pipe; it kicked out its legs frantically before they disappeared down the chute.

"Buh-bye!" Piper said with a grin and a wave, as the Nightcrawler’s shrieks faded down the pipe.

* * *

Cyclonis barely ducked her head to avoid the fire Smaug shot at her. Enraged, Cyclonis shot a purple blast back at the dragon, which of course dissipated harmlessly against Smaug's scales. The half-dozen Nightcrawlers that hadn’t boarded the _Condor_ with their brethren were swooping in coordinated formation to assist their Master, shooting at Smaug to keep his attention. Whirling his fiery gaze, Smaug unleashed a stream of fire from his jaws at the flying pests. A few Nightcrawlers were instantly caught in the bright blaze – Smaug was intrigued to see their burning husks drop from the sky, whereas before his fire had vapourised them instantly – but a couple evaded the flames and continued to fly like flies in Smaug’s face.

Cyclonis flew her Switchblade back towards the _Condor_ ; the ship’s remaining turret turned its fire on her as she came in, the Master once more easily avoiding. Smaug saw where Cyclonis was going, and shot towards her in a beeline, pumping his wings hard. Cyclonis aimed her staff at the _Condor_ 's bow, the crystal on the tip glowing smelting-red; and fired an intense ray.

The red blast tore straight through the ceiling of the _Condor_ 's bridge. Stork turned and looked with a nervous whine.

Her Switchblade hurtling like it were on a suicide-run, Cyclonis leapt up from her ride. Defying gravity with her magic, she shot through the air like an arrow. At the same moment, a Nightcrawler had latched onto Smaug’s large eye before he could reach Cyclonis’ Switchblade; Cyclonis flew into the breach on the _Condor_ , a second before Smaug flew blindly past the ship. Roaring, Smaug shook the bothersome vermin off with a powerful movement in his neck. He twisted his body round, set on exterminating the remaining creatures.

Cyclonis' momentum as she’d shot onto the bridge, had slowed with a wing-like unnatural whoosh. Her long cloak billowed out around her as she drifted above the floor, floating towards the terrified-looking helmsman like some dark phantom.

"Hello, _Storm Hawks_ ," Cyclonis said, grinning as she held out her crystal-staff.

"Goodbye, _Master Cyclonis_!" Stork shot back with sudden bravery, immediately reaching for and pulling a certain lever at the helm. The circular floor below Cyclonis instantaneously shot upwards on a spring, sending her shooting vertically through the opened ceiling, screeching to the skies in utter fury. Cyclonis writhed in her stopped ascent as Smaug’s huge form flew below; whirling, she shot a violent purple bolt downwards with a yell, then herself flew in a vertical beeline right behind it. Her course brought her shooting right by Smaug’s head, his roving molten eye tracking her as she passed.

"Uh oh," was all Stork could murmur when Cyclonis’ blast obliterated his floor trap and the empress descended back in. Looking _enraged_ , Cyclonis didn’t waste a second before firing a purple energy-bolt at Stork. Violet light blazed through the bridge at the impact, and when it faded, Stork was flat on the floor, worse-for-wear.

As the whole ship shuddered with some immense force, Cyclonis whipped her head up; in time to see Smaug’s huge, taloned fingers tear the whole roof away like opening a tin can, revealing his savage face leering in. Smaug sprung his head at Cyclonis, jaws open, orange light shining up his throat. Her cloak detaching, Cyclonis flew straight towards Smaug’s attack, wielding her staff like a spear. As Cyclonis and Smaug’s jaws were about to meet, Cyclonis swung her staff at Smaug’s upper-lip – the immense shockwave that rippled outward from the point of contact forced Smaug’s head off towards the side; whilst the serrated tooth that Cyclonis’ staff had struck, broke off from the impact. It clattered to the bridge’s floor.

Cyclonis looked at where the tooth had fallen, before hearing Smaug’s ear-piercing roar. Reeling his head away on his neck, Smaug screeched and writhed a moment longer, then pierced Cyclonis with a _murderous_ look. Screeching madly, Smaug made to swipe Cyclonis with a foreclaw; but she’d flown through the doorway to the hallway, as the gigantic claw smashed down to the bridge with devastating force behind her.

Cyclonis had barely moved a foot forward before a Storm Hawk stepped into the hallway, blocking her path.

“Not so fast, Cyclonis!” Finn exclaimed, crossbow raised. With a sweep of her staff, Cyclonis telekinetically slammed Finn to the adjacent wall like swatting a fly. He slid to the floor, unconscious as Cyclonis floated past him.

* * *

Retracting from the roofless bridge, Smaug reeled his head away to start searching along the bow’s hull for any sign of Cyclonis inside. Though getting to Cyclonis would mean tearing through the ship’s hull; Stork already knew that as he forced his weak body off the floor, grabbing onto the helm for support.

“ _Not this time_ ,” Stork growled fiercely, grasping the helm with both hands. With a forward-thrust of the helm, the _Condor_ suddenly blasted forward. The unexpected jolt unhooked Smaug from the ship as he gave a surprised cry. Stork didn’t waste any time guiding the _Condor_ ’s flight pattern, as Smaug roared and gave chase.

Smaug had more than half a mind to blow the miserable ship _out of the sky_ and pick his stolen crystal from the ashes, save for the fact Piper was also onboard. His fiery yellow eyes blazed bright in the night, as he intended to tear the ship apart.

* * *

Cyclonis barely gave an irritated growl as the ship trembled around her; floating straight towards the doorway at the end of the hallway, where the green crystal was visible plugged into a plaster-encased ankle.

"Not a chance, Cyclonis!" Piper emerged from the doorway, standing defiant with her crystal-mounted staff in hand.

"Well, if it isn't my _best friend forever_ ," Cyclonis purred in a soothingly-soft voice, her body language shifting almost-teasingly like she were greeting an old friend. “It’s nice to see you again, Piper. I’ve been hearing quite a lot of interesting stories since last we met.”

“Really?” Piper growled, not backing down.

“What was it again…?” Cyclonis put a finger to her chin contemplatively, but her tone made it clear she wasn’t struggling to remember anything. “There was Terra Agora, when Smaug was _fought off_ without a single casualty… And then there was a _girl_ in the dragon’s claws in all those other sightings…” Cyclonis’ grin broadened deviously as her purple eyes fixed Piper with a nasty look. “ _Loved your attire_ by the way.”

Piper moved to attack Cyclonis, who unleashed a protective energy-wall from her staff, blocking Piper’s strike. Before Piper could swing for another attack, a lightning-fast black flash suddenly tackled her to the floor of Aerrow’s room. Drifting into the room, Cyclonis wasted no time in pointing out her staff; lifting Piper and the Nightcrawler that had tackled her off the floor, slamming them to the opposite wall.

"Piper!" Aerrow cried out on the bed, looking over at where Piper was groaning on the floor. The purple-glowing energies that still blazed over her form sapped her energy, stopping her from getting up.

* * *

Stork refused to give up, taking the _Condor_ twisting this way and that in very sharp manoeuvres to avoid the fiery torrents Smaug shot after it. When several seconds passed without another fire-attack, Stork twisted and braked the _Condor_ on the air. Looking around for any sign of the dragon, Stork momentarily thought he’d shaken Smaug off. Then his huge silhouette swooped out of the cloud-cover he’d crept through, brutally smashing the _Condor_ with his hind-claws as he shot overhead.

As Stork looked out, the dragon was circling to come in for another strike.

* * *

Cyclonis was disturbingly unfazed by the ship’s rocking and shuddering, hovering a foot above the spacious bedroom’s floor.

"What happened to you?" Cyclonis commented, a smile spreading on her face as she looked at Aerrow’s huge body-cast. "Slipped on a banana peel?" Her voice was teasing.

"Something like that," Aerrow admitted curtly, lip slightly curled at the Storm Hawks’ enemy.

"Oh, really?" Cyclonis murmured coldly. Another shudder of the ship brought Radarr staggering right behind the chuckling Master, holding up a cupboard twice his size. Cyclonis pointed a finger, transforming the object to an iron which flattened Radarr to the floor; all without turning round. Aerrow couldn’t help shaking his head slightly, exasperated.

“What do you want, Cyclonis?” Aerrow asked.

“Piper must have you on a five-day plan,” Cyclonis observed. “Smart girl. Too bad you’ve got ten minutes left, and I’m _already right here_.” Both their gazes briefly flicked to the clock, which was at 11:50. “ _Now_ , you have something I need.” Cyclonis’ purple eyes looked to the Nill Crystal. Aerrow just widened his green eyes as, with an audible grunt of effort, Cyclonis wrenched the tiny stone free of the plug.

“ _NO_!” Piper cried out on the floor, helpless to do anything. Cyclonis chuckled darkly, before looking back at Aerrow.

“ _Now_ , to finish off one of my biggest annoyances, _once and for all_ ,” she hissed, pointing the end of her crystal-staff at Aerrow’s face; the claw extending out, the mounted crystal glowing violently. Suddenly, a smile broke on Aerrow’s face.

“What are you so happy about?” Cyclonis snapped coldly, her tone between anger and bewilderment as she pulled her staff back.

“I know something you don’t know,” Aerrow said sneakily, gesturing with his eyes back at the clock. “That clock is three ticks too slow.”

“And this concerns me, _because_ …?” Cyclonis questioned, her eyes and voice both betraying how unimpressed she was.

“I was healed _two minutes ago_!” Aerrow’s leg lashed out at Cyclonis in a lightning-fast move. With a great heave, he rolled himself off the side of the bed, the thick plaster shattering as he hit the floor. The energy-sapping shroud on Piper immediately dissipated.

“Those ticks add up;” Aerrow poked his head above the bed’s edge to say. Cyclonis rounded on him, eyes blazing; when Radarr suddenly leapt at her raised staff, unbalancing her.

“Aerrow, catch!” Piper threw her crystal-staff to the underwear-clad Sky Knight. As Cyclonis swung her staff, trying to throw Radarr off, Aerrow made a well-placed strike, dislodging the main crystal from the staff’s claw.

“Now,” Aerrow said, smirking as he pointed Piper’s staff over the space between him and Cyclonis, “about _my_ biggest annoyance…” But Cyclonis suddenly brushed off her emotions at her defeat, holding up the Nill Crystal between her two fingers.

“I already have what I really came from,” she said, shooting a cool, victorious grin. “Maybe next time…” Before anyone could try and stop her, Cyclonis went sprinting back out the hallway. Aerrow and Piper immediately gave chase; Junko joining them when he emerged into the hall just behind Cyclonis.

Running onto the bridge, Cyclonis reached out her hand, and the dragon tooth on the floor telekinetically flew into it. Stork turned around at the helm, but before he could react; Cyclonis slammed the hilt of her staff to the floor, and a blinding red light exploded on the bridge. The blaze erupted to the skies, taking Cyclonis away.

Smaug whirled his molten gaze at the light, his mind quickly processing what was going on and what it could be. When he worked it out after a second, Smaug abandoned the _Condor_ and flew off in the direction the light had gone; pumping his wings hard. Leaving the Storm Hawks on their ship’s exposed bridge, to look upwards through the open space where the ceiling had once been.

* * *

Smaug travelled well into the next day and past sunset, flying straight for where he knew Cyclonis would go with his crystal. Murderous, bloodthirsty thoughts filled his head as he reached the borders of Cyclonia’s realm. Had he not once warned Master Cyclonis what would happen if she ever meddled in his affairs again?

Smaug didn’t have to fly too far into the dark realm (with sunless red skies and metallic looking crags all around him) before three Cyclonian cruisers loomed ahead, as though seeking to block his path. Standing atop one of the ships, he saw the Master herself; mouth fixed into a serious line as she watched Smaug fly straight towards them.

“I believe this is _yours_?” Cyclonis called out in that sibilant voice; holding the Nill Crystal for Smaug to clearly see. Smaug’s molten eyes narrowed, the fire building in his chest; uncontainably enraged to see the crystal in the hands of this filthy witch who-!

Cyclonis suddenly threw the crystal to the air. Rearing the front of his body and slowing on his wings, Smaug caught the tiny green thing squarely in his hind-paw. Cyclonis was watching Smaug carefully, as he narrowed his bright eyes at her, growling suspiciously.

Did the witch think that she could just steal from him, then return what she’d taken like it had never happened?! If she did, then she was sorely mistaken to think she would worm her way out of Smaug’s vengeance that easily!

Smaug’s curled lip was all the warning he gave before he suddenly made to fly right past Cyclonis’ cruiser, towards the terra at the heart of the empire. Yes, before he killed Cyclonis, she could watch him burn everything she’d ever strived for to ash!

But before Smaug had flown more than a league past Cyclonis’ ships, dozens more Cyclonian battle-cruisers started springing out of the bloodred clouds in front of Smaug, each accompanied by a swarm of Switchblade-riding Talons. As Smaug looked around, Cyclonians hovered on all sides, ready to engage him the moment he made to break through their ranks.

Smaug could have snorted disgustedly at the filthy humans’ foolishness for thinking they could destroy him. But he knew when something was a threat to him, and right now, he was outnumbered by a heavily-armed combined force greater than any single Sky Knight squadron or other force in Atmos could muster. So Smaug halted, hovering – though the thought that these mortal cretins could dare threaten him still made Smaug burn inside with white-hot anger.

“I’m sorry I had to _steal_ that crystal from you, Smaug,” Cyclonis’ voice spoke, making Smaug turn his fiery gaze back on her. Her purple eyes held a mad-seeming, calculating glint. “I sincerely hope there are no hard feelings over this; there is hardly need for us to be enemies.”

“Oh, I’d beg to differ, _Master_!” Smaug snarled, voice terrifying as he glowered in outrage and disdain. “Tell me why I should not _burn you all to ash at this moment_?!”

“I don’t want fighting between us, Smaug,” Cyclonis quickly responded, in a neutral tone that Smaug thought was _nearly_ sincere. “I said once before, you and I could benefit _much_ as allies.” Smaug sneered in disgust at her.

“If you recall, I already gave you my answer to that proposal!” Smaug snarled dangerously, the light in his yellow eyes deadly-bright.

“I remember the failure with the Exopod,” Cyclonis spoke quickly. “But _times are changing_ , Smaug.” That they were; Smaug had sensed it, like the little beasts of a forest could sense when nature was out of balance.

“If you give us the honour of your services, destroying our enemies,” Cyclonis pressed on as Smaug listened more intently; “then you will have _every_ valuable treasure that you desire. _Whatever the kind_.” Smaug caught the hint in Cyclonis’ words, the secret glint in her eyes; he instantly suspected that somehow, _she knew_.

Smaug gave Cyclonis a scrutinising look, like a man would look on a chunk of meat at the butcher’s and weigh whether it was worth their gold. Though Smaug very much had a debt to repay, tracing his tongue along the jagged gap in his gums where a tooth was now missing; he was now thinking of her proposition more seriously. Whether born of stupidity or some ludicrous emotional drive; he’d actually been mildly impressed by the fearlessness she’d displayed which so few other mortals had ever shown to Smaug’s face. Considering Cyclonis’ words, Smaug also thought of Aerrow and the filthy Storm Hawk rabble, who had stolen from him and humiliated him far too many times! And most of all, the one Storm Hawk that he wanted chained to his side and rotting in her own despair forever!

Smaug’s pause of contemplation lasted five seconds, during which Cyclonis observed him with neutral eyes, before he looked back at her.

“Very well, _Master_ ,” Smaug growled, spitting out the empress’ title. “Give me a satisfying demonstration of your self-stylised _Cyclonian might_ , then I’ll _consider_ you as someone worthy of my alliance.”

A pleased, thin smile spread across Cyclonis’ face. “You will _not_ be disappointed, Smaug,” Cyclonis promised ominously in a low, sibilant voice.

“Oh, we’ll just see,” Smaug hissed darkly, his voice curt. “Though do hurry up, Master, or I might just change my mind!” The farewell-meaning in Smaug’s voice was clear, and without another word; he twisted and went flying past Cyclonis’ ship, back out of Cyclonia’s borders.

Only when Smaug’s silhouette had faded from sight, did Master Cyclonis return to the bridge of her battle-cruiser.

“Double our borders’ security, and increase all our monitoring of Smaug’s activities,” Cyclonis calmly ordered the red-eyed Nightcrawler. She knew that now, she’d have to speed up her plans both with Operation Exodus _and_ with getting Smaug on Cyclonia’s side. After this, they were at serious threat of Smaug’s hostility compromising everything they had planned.

Elsewhere, as he flew back towards his lair, Smaug thought on what allying with Cyclonia would mean for his ulterior motives. He may have agreed to _consider_ giving Cyclonia his alliance, and he truly was baited to see if they would prove themselves worthy of it this time; but he would always remember the few scores he had to settle with them. He had a debt to personally repay Cyclonis, as he felt the toothless gap with his tongue again. Like in other reptiles, the tooth would grow back, but that wouldn’t save the little witch from Smaug’s retribution when the time came.


	16. Interim

After her last chat with Smaug, Master Cyclonis sped up her plans for Operation Exodus, redirecting all of Cyclonia’s major efforts to the new master plan. She’d been working on this secret project since the Storm Engine had failed seven months ago, when those pesky Storm Hawks had first made themselves known; but only recently had it started looking like it would become a reality. If it did, this project could _guarantee_ the future of Atmos in Cyclonia’s favour.

Cyclonian expeditions were sent throughout Atmos to find the ancient object Cyclonis needed. She knew of it from her family’s ancient scrolls, but finding where it had been hidden for millennia was a different matter. For the first four weeks, nothing was found, there were only her commanders’ failures securing the Warp Crystals she needed. Then the ancient temple holding the object was found on Terra Tropica; a remote, isolated jungle terra, largely a desert island.

After the report was confirmed, Cyclonis moved to see the find retrieved herself, leaving Ravess in charge of Cyclonia while she was gone. The Nightcrawlers were sent ahead to… _clear out_ the interfering locals on Tropica – one thing about Nightcrawlers, they were _thorough_.

Inside the temple, Cyclonis was impressed upon seeing her ancestors’ powerful weapon – a closed door, built with no wall around it; standing atop a tall rock base which had carved steps leading up to the door. The door’s frame was eloquent-looking, with sharp, intricate patterns dominating the door-pane.

The Dark Ace was less impressed than his Master, though Cyclonis told him that _this_ door would lead them to the _future of Cyclonia_. At that moment, a monstrous creature came lumbering to defend the door; dispatching the Dark Ace easily, before Cyclonis subdued the old family pet.

When Cyclonis returned with the door (also bringing the powerful watchdog back to Cyclonia); she _wasn’t happy_ to find Lugey on her grandmother’s throne, stuffing himself with candy, whilst Ravess had managed to get herself, Snipe and the other Raptors all locked up in the dungeon. Cyclonis decided to start cleaning house after that. Ravess was banished for her last failure, though the others were kept around for now. There was much work to be done, now that the Atmos was so nearly in Cyclonis’ grip.

Two weeks after the door was found, Cyclonis was surprised when Smaug came to her first to discuss her alliance-proposal. He’d burst through Cyclonia’s outer-borders; telling the first Cyclonian he saw to inform her he was here, adding an articulated threat. Smaug was flying further towards the terra when the Master emerged to see him. Smaug said he’d considered Cyclonis’ words, and had decided he would do her one _generous favour_ before he made up his mind. Though Cyclonis wasn’t fooled by Smaug’s convincing sweet tone; she knew he wouldn’t forget the fight over the Nill Crystal so easily.

Over the following two weeks, Cyclonis thoroughly researched her scrolls for what she needed to complete her goals; the _key_ to open the door. She also spent time in the hangar where the door was held, looking at what would mark the future of her empire. This door would open up a _world_ of dark promise. They must all prepare for what would be _the end of Atmos_.

* * *

With Cyclonian activity suspiciously decreasing, Piper had been able to devote the resulting downtime to her research concerning Smaug; particularly, thinking about the visions they’d shared and what they meant. Few things connected all the visions: Smaug, and the giant crystal-mounted arrow that shot him at the burning lake-town. But when Piper remembered Gandalf’s words and Smaug’s oddly-calcified body at the wreckage, Piper thought: what if, whatever had happened to Smaug when he’d been shot by the arrow, he hadn’t really died, and something else had happened instead? What if these visions showed her what happened a long time ago?

The Storm Hawks’ downtime didn’t last long before their Number One (and only) fan drew them to Niveus Purgamentum with a false distress call, to their annoyance. But it wasn’t for nought, as Ravess soon came for the terra’s Warp Crystals, before the Storm Hawks and Noob fought her off. Noob had also managed to glean some Cyclonian intel from Ravess when he’d been her captive.

Aerrow and Piper were both concerned that _Operation Exodus_ couldn’t be anything good, and set about learning more while Cyclonian activity was minimal. But after weeks of searching fruitlessly, the Storm Hawks decided to take a break on Terra Tropica. It quickly took a turn for the worse when a tsunami separated the squadron from Stork and the _Condor_ , and a deadly storm hit; Stork returned just in time to save the others from another tsunami, and get them off Tropica. Aerrow and Piper got concerned that Stork’s obsessive paranoia was growing, as after they left, he told everyone he’d seen Tiki-headed natives, and a wall-less door guarded by a monster on Tropica.

But two weeks later, it seemed Stork’s story wasn’t so mad after all, as the Cyclonians were snooping around on Tropica. Piper and Aerrow both agreed to send Finn on his own solo mission – a crystal-run to a mining terra – whilst they returned to Tropica to investigate.

Aerrow, Piper, Radarr, Junko and Stork were horrified to find the native-village Stork had talked about, decimated with none left alive. Then they found the temple, guarded by Cyclonians, though they easily got past. But inside, the temple was empty, with no monster nor door. Stork feared he really was going mad, when Ravess showed up. She said she wouldn’t fight them, and offered to give them information – apparently, Cyclonis ‘ _no longer had the honour of her allegiance_.’

According to Ravess, Cyclonis had been trying access the Far Side of Atmos itself with Operation Exodus. And now she’d found a way; namely, the doorway that Stork had seen in the temple. The thought of Cyclonis accessing the Far Side terrified Piper, as the Far Side was said in ancient scrolls and legends to be a place of _unspeakable_ power. Ravess said that they still had time, as Cyclonis didn’t have the key to the door, but she refused to tell them anything more before she left.

Piper made finding this key before Cyclonis her Number One priority, alongside thinking of ways to stop Smaug. After all, he’d gone as quiet as the Cyclonians since the Storm Hawks’ last encounter with him. If Master Cyclonis had _him_ on her side…

Thankfully, Piper had had months to come up with many new ideas. Smaug’s hide was impenetrable, but they already knew his eye was vulnerable when open. Stork had told everyone about Cyclonis’ power knocking one of Smaug’s teeth out when they’d fought for the Nill Crystal. And the bond had to give Piper a way to better fight Smaug that she hadn’t yet found. Side-options Piper considered were forcefields generated with the right crystals to trap Smaug, or getting something inside him, down his gullet. But she wouldn’t know if any of these would work until they were used on Smaug…

All the while, something terrible was building on the horizon of the Atmos like a thunderhead, getting closer with every passing day. Even if Piper and the Storm Hawks didn’t yet know it, the time to stop Smaug and Cyclonis was fast approaching…


	17. Scattered

Junko was positively green-faced, walking out of the diner ahead of the others.

“Well, that’s what you get for scarfing down your air-chilli in one gulp!” Finn exclaimed cheerily.

“Aerrow said we’re in a hurry,” Junko replied as they walked across the tiny, shrubbery-dominated pit-stop of a terra.

“We are,” Aerrow said seriously, looking to where the _Condor_ was waiting, parked at one of the docks. “Once Cyclonis finds out we’re trying to beat her to the key, there’s no telling what she’ll-”

Aerrow never finished that sentence; suddenly, the whole _Condor_ exploded in a blinding red flash, the shockwave throwing the Storm Hawks several metres backwards. Getting back to their feet, everyone stared in utter shock at where their ship, their _home_ , had been reduced to a cloud of smoke. But no-one was more distraught than Stork; he reached out his hand with a pained cry, a second before the charred circular piece that held the ship’s insignia crashed into the ground, right before him.

Spitz, Lugey and Hoerk giggled behind the stack of crates at the sight of their handiwork, like a group of kids who’d pulled off a mean prank. Though the trio’s laughter ended when Repton came up right behind them, exploding with fury.

“ _IDIOTS_!” Repton shrieked; his brothers immediately cowering in submissive fear of him. “You were supposed to wait until the Storm Hawks were _onboard_ before blowing up their cruiser! Master Cyclonis is gonna be _furious_ when she finds out you _messed this up_!”

“True,” a voice growled; the Raptors looked up to see Snipe riding on his Elite Heliblade, a battle-cruiser and a Talon squad flying behind him. “But she won’t be surprised. That’s why she sent backup.” Snipe spoke dismissively as Repton glared: “You’re done here. Cyclonia will deal with you _later_!”

“Everybody okay?” Aerrow called, the group having yet to notice the incoming Cyclonians. Finn was frantic.

“Okay?!” he shrieked. “We just lost our ship! Our _home_! My guitar collection, _everything_! How could we be _any worse_?!” A few red bolts suddenly fired past Finn, barely missing him. Everyone looked up to see Snipe and two Talons flying low, shooting at them.

“Sorry I asked!!” Finn yelled loudly. The heavily-armed cruiser above starting raining fire from the rash of cannons across its surface.

“We’ll meet at the emergency rendezvous,” Aerrow said quickly. “Split up!” The Storm Hawks took off running in different directions as red bolts continued raining down.

Piper’s sprint brought her right into the path of an oncoming Heliblade; which switched to land-mode and rode forward, seemingly intending to run her over. Leaping into the air, Piper kicked out a foot as the Heliblade reached her – knocking the Talon clean off his ride, letting her mount it herself. Junko meanwhile, had stolen a child’s little sky-bike, and was comically riding away from three Talons on the thing. Whilst Radarr was being forced back to the terra’s edge by two spear-armed Cyclonians.

“Hey!” The Cyclonians looked up in time to see Aerrow slash at them with his twin lightning-blades, sending them to the ground. Aerrow and Radarr both grinned, not noticing Snipe fly in behind them. He unleashed an energy-bolt from his crystal-mace, instantly blasting Aerrow and Radarr right off the terra’s edge. Aerrow grabbed onto the rocky side by his fingers, but Radarr fell past him towards the clouds.

“Radarr!”

Aerrow let go without hesitating, his body pointed like an arrow as he shot vertically downwards. He quickly caught Radarr, then spread his suit’s emergency wings; taking them soaring away from the terra, with Snipe’s Heliblade giving hot pursuit.

Finn meanwhile, ran from a Talon into a waste chute that was built into the terra. He rolled down the pipe, coming out onto a garbage-ship. Said ship almost-immediately twisted and flew away from the terra, even as several Talons chased after it.

Stork was one of the only Storm Hawks left on the terra. Looking out from the crates he’d hidden behind, he saw the Raptors mounting their Bone-Wings nearby. Stork’s eyes focused on the handheld switch that Repton threw to the ground in anger, before the reptilian brothers revved and flew off. The fresh image of the _Condor_ exploding before his eyes, the insignia landing in front of him, replayed in Stork’s mind. And a great rage overcame him, the like which came when a parent had found their child’s murderer.

“ _Freeze_!”

Stork looked up in time to see the Talons, and ran off in the opposite direction, heading for the terra’s edge as they shot at him. He leapt off the edge, deploying his emergency parachute after he’d fallen a safe hundred feet away. Stork chuckled at his escape – though the sound was cut short when he saw he was floating towards a shaft in the terra’s side. Hitting it hard, everything went black for the Merp.

Stork didn’t know how long he’d been unconscious, before he awoke to dense trees brushing around him as he floated to the ground. Upon landing, Stork climbed up the sandy ditch he’d fallen to, but immediately backed down to the ground when he saw what was looming through the sandy-green forestry.

“ _Terra Bogaton_!” Stork murmured, recognising the Raptors’ tree-shaped fortress. “The winds must have brought me here for a reason… Repton took my _Condor_ … My home… My _love_!” Yes, that was why he was here, an eye for an eye, he thought; he’d been taken from and now he would take in _return_ …!

After a few moments, smearing his face with camouflage-stripes and tying a bandana round his head; Stork was glaring out at the Raptor leader’s fortress with a madness that was beyond rage. “Well, now, _IT’S TIME FOR PAYBACK_!”

* * *

Master Cyclonis was furious after news of the Raptors’ folly had reached her.

“The Storm Hawks were a loose end that I very much wanted _wrapped up_ ,” she growled frighteningly into the radio-speaker at Repton. “You made your last mistake letting them get away!”

“ _Well-ah, actually, I was the one who_ …” Lugey’s voice interjected, before being cut off with a pained groan.

“Cyclonia is done with you, Repton!” Cyclonis growled with finality. “Now _you_ are a loose end! One which I will wrap up _very soon_!”

“ _You’re welcome to_ try _, Cyclonis_ ,” Repton’s sandpaper-like voice sneered over the radio confidently. “ _Bogaton has the best defences in the Atmos! If a_ bird _lands, we know it! Nothing can get me_ here!”

“Oh, but there’s one particular _bird_ that you haven’t considered, Repton…” Cyclonis murmured to herself, smirking as she lowered the speaker-piece. She picked the purple crystal up in both hands, closing her eyes reverently as she whispered to the one on the other end. “Smaug, it is time that I called your generous favour in…”

* * *

Piper had escaped to the open skies on the Heliblade, but the Talons were relentless – Switchblades and Heliblades both flew after her, firing relentlessly as Piper barely dodged. Piper swerved as another two Talons approached ahead of her; landing a successful shot at her Heliblade’s rotor.

“ _No_!” Piper cried out. Then her ride went hurtling downward through the clouds, smoke trailing behind it. She didn’t know how long she fell, struggling to regain some control, before she saw the rocky surface of a terra come in fast. With a cry, Piper crashed to the terra’s path-layered surface; dislodged from her Heliblade, which slid several feet in its crash-landing.

Piper nursed her aching forehead as she got back to her feet. Looking round at the lifeless, ashen-grey rock, she got the nagging feeling she’d seen this place before… But her observation was interrupted when three Talons’ rides revved forward in land-mode, the riders’ crystal-lances held out as they cackled menacingly.

“Okay, I give up!” Piper exclaimed, raising her hands above her head.

“We’re not taking prisoners,” the lead Talon growled, grinning. At that moment, a huge finger the size of his arm tapped lightly on his shoulder. The Talons turned… and saw a huge, scarred giant towering over them all, sneering through his thick beard. With a yell, Gundstaff swung his mace at the Cyclonians, brutally smashing them and their rides into a rock wall. Then, the giant turned his eyes on the other tiny human.

“Gundstaff!” Piper recognised him. His overalls were now re-stitched rags that had several charred parts, and much of the visible skin on his body was horribly burned; leathery-white patches were sloughing off in several places, where the angry-red flesh on his face and forearms were still healing. He looked like he’d crawled out of a wildfire only to be savaged by a huge animal, if the vicious extra bite-scars he had on one arm were anything to go by. Only now did Piper recognise the formerly-green terra which had since been scorched to a barren rock.

“Look, I know I’m trespassing, but I’m not here to steal from you!” Piper quickly tried to placate the giant, who looked at her with a suspicious sneer as though trying to decide what to do with her. “I can explain!”

* * *

Five minutes later, Gundstaff had led Piper up the barren terra to his hut (or what remained of it). The place was now a ravaged shell, no doubt from when Smaug had made his way through to the crystal-vault (which had a dragon-sized hole torn in it) and back out. The metal walls were burned black and partly melted in many areas. Many of the tanks and piping were exploded shells which had left black burn-marks. Much of the giant-sized furniture had been crudely put back together from shattered remnants, and looked out of place where they’d been repositioned, in the building that had been scarred by Smaug’s trail of destruction. Piper even saw one giant-sofa that was only half a piece of furniture – a massive chunk of the right side diagonally sliced away, clean claw-marks gouged into the frayed edges. Thin bits of sunlight leaked into the hut through the tatter-size holes in the roof, the only source of lighting save for a couple crystals on lamps. The hut looked more like a ruin where a homeless person were squatting, than the homey place it had been when Piper had last seen it.

Piper watched, surprised, as Gundstaff forced the gaping opening in the hut as close to shut as he could, piling his giant-size damaged furniture over it.

“Um, not that I’m complaining,” Piper spoke up nervously, as the giant walked past her to barricade the other openings in the ruined hut; “but you didn’t seem too happy the last time I, uh… borrowed some of your crystals without asking.”

“Cyclonia did nothing to help me after Smaug _destroyed my home_ and _took my crystals_!” Gundstaff growled, anger and pain in his voice; gesturing round at the ravaged hut.

“Besides…” Gundstaff’s voice softened. “They have taken more from me than you _ever_ could…” He gestured to a picture on the wall. Though the frame’s glass was blackened with soot, the image was clear: a younger-looking Gundstaff, smiling, a woman standing beside him and a boy between them. Piper felt a pang of pain for Gundstaff’s loss, having lost her own family to the Cyclonians. Suddenly, the whole hut trembled around them, being blasted from the outside.

“Maybe _now_ would be a good time for you to ask me,” the scarred giant grunted gruffly.

“Ask you what?” Piper asked.

“If you can borrow some of my crystals,” Gundstaff replied; hauling out a huge (by Piper’s standards) crate filled with glowing stones. Piper looked at them with that pleasant awe crystals had brought her since childhood. “I am glad to say that at least that overgrown lizard didn’t take _all of them_ …”

* * *

Lugey slowed his Bone-Wing to a quiet stop, not even thinking to look around and make sure he’d slipped the invader.

One of the patrol-guards had reported back to Repton earlier, saying an assailant had taken out his comrades, and sent him back to tell Repton that he was coming for him. Repton had immediately sent his brothers to hunt down whoever it was that had gotten past Bogaton’s defences.

“Uh, boss… It got Hoerk and Spitz…” Lugey barely even stopped for breath as he spoke into his ride’s radio. “But I got away and-!”

“ _Psst_!”

Lugey looked up, in time to see the assailant’s eyes as he leapt down from atop the cactus.

Inside his tower-fortress, Repton physically flinched away from the radio at the sound of Lugey’s high-pitched shriek coming through it.

“ _Lugey_!” Repton growled furiously as his brother’s cry faded off. “What’s _happening_?!” The voice that replied through the radio wasn’t Lugey. It sounded more like an escaped asylum patient than anything else.

“ _I’ve taken them all out, Repton_ ,” it murmured in a high, demented tone. “ _And now I’m coming for YOU_!”

Repton had to flinch again, uneasy. Suddenly, he wasn’t so sure that he was as safe up here as he’d claimed, looking about as though an assassin could be lurking in the room’s shadows.

* * *

Aerrow flew frantically ahead of the battle-cruiser, having to constantly twist to evade its endless barrage of fire. It soon got so bad that Aerrow had to swoop into the clouds, unable to see five feet ahead. There, the three beautiful birds appeared as if from nowhere, fire-coloured wings flapping, flanking Aerrow and Radarr.

“Follow us!” the bird on Aerrow’s left spoke, its beak moving.

“Guardians?!” Aerrow exclaimed, recognising the bird-forms of the shapeshifting druid-men that he hadn’t seen in nearly a year.

“Ooh; very good,” the second bird growled, Aerrow just remembering that cynical voice. “Now hurry!”

The three birds led Aerrow and Radarr through the cloud-cover; bringing them to a lush, sun-dappled terra that Aerrow hadn’t seen before, heading into a peaceful cave.

“Thanks for the save,” Aerrow said to the three Guardians, who had transformed back to their eccentric-dressed human forms; each with their own colour scheme.

“Don’t thank us yet,” the cantankerous Guardian with the dark grey colours growled.

“Our time is drawing to a close, Aerrow,” said the purple-bearded Guardian with the silver-lined garments. His voice was comfortingly soft if a little theatrical, as Aerrow remembered. “Indeed, there are just _five_ of us left…”

“ _Five_?” Aerrow echoed, confused; only counting and only remembering three Guardians.

“Remember me, kid?” a high, clownish voice called from the shadows. A willowy figure stepped into the light – purple goatee; wild, green-and-purple slicked hair that matched the clownish impression his voice and clothing gave.

“Arygyn?” Aerrow recognised the sky-trainer who had helped the Storm Hawks before.

“And please don’t forget me,” called another voice from the opposite direction; gentle and lighthearted yet wise. Aerrow and Radarr looked, to see a short, skinny man step forward –small grey eyes and a matching beard, with clothing more befitting of a junkshop-keeper than his four fellows’ attire.

“ _You_?” Aerrow exclaimed, looking wide-eyed on the man who’d walked in on the Sky Knight Council meeting. And who Piper had recognised from Aerrow’s description, as the crystal-mage shopkeeper from Terra Agora.

“Yes, me,” the Guardian-shopkeeper said softly.

“You see, we Guardians have been keeping an eye on you, in one form or another,” the purple-bearded Guardian told Aerrow.

“Speaking of…” Arygyn spoke up suddenly. “I think you dropped these.” Aerrow could have grinned as Arygyn held out his twin lightning-blades, handing them back to him.

“The moment of your destiny is _coming_ , Aerrow,” the purple-bearded Guardian whispered dramatically. “A conflict that will involve _all the Atmos_!”

“Yeah, well… I’ve survived some pretty tough scrapes,” Aerrow murmured lightly, twirling his blades before returning them to their holsters. The dark-coloured Guardian grumbled, shaking his head.

“You and Piper both,” the shopkeeper-Guardian commented.

“We’ve scryed the future, Aerrow,” the dark-coloured Guardian murmured softly. “And when we try to see the outcome of the battle to come, all we find is an Atmos… without _you_.” Aerrow nearly gulped, thinking of what that meant. Radarr shared his feelings, putting a comforting paw on Aerrow’s arm and whining keenly.

“But, enough what-does-the-future-hold do-dallies,” the shopkeeper chirped dismissively, shaking a bony hand in the air. “I’m sure that you must also have some questions about _Smaug_?”

“Uh… As a matter of fact, yes.” Aerrow murmured quickly, the pieces slotting in his mind as he realised; the Guardians were offering to give him answers about Smaug, and possibly the bond between him and Piper. “Where did he come from, what _is_ he?”

“Smaug was a dragon of a time long ago, when the world in which all things live was very much different to how it is now,” the shopkeeper explained calmly, weaving the air of a storyteller. “Smaug lived before Atmos as you know it even existed, in an ancient, long-ago land called Middle-Earth; when the fairy-tales of elves and monsters and goblins were very much real.” Aerrow and Radarr both listened, in awe as the shopkeeper went on:

“And in those times, when beautiful elves still lived in the woods, and dwarves lived in mountains, seeking riches and fashioning with unrivalled craftsmanship; the dragons, like many things, were very much different to how they are now. Intelligent, greedy, wicked, _cruel_ ; as you have seen.

“Smaug was one of the _last great fire-drakes_ of his time; in fact, he was a descendant of the _very greatest dragon_ that ever lived! By then, the dragons of old were sickly and dying, banished to the far reaches of the world; by the humans, dwarves and elves who hated them and feared their destruction and wrath.

“One day, when word reached the dragons in the far reaches of a dwarvish kingdom, a mountain-city _filled_ with the vastest, greatest wealth of treasure the world had ever seen… Smaug, the greatest and strongest of his kind, descended south to take the mountain and its treasure for himself. He burned and destroyed the human city that was built at the foot of the mountain, though the man who lorded over it made a last stand against the dragon; firing _black arrows_ that could pierce a dragon’s scales. Alas, he was slain, as were many other dwarves and humans that day; but not before his shots managed to loosen a _single scale_ upon Smaug’s chest. _Over his left breast_.” Aerrow’s eyes widened, he realised what that meant.

“Smaug took the mountain and its treasure for himself, drove the dwarves and humans out of the surrounding lands that he burned with his fire. Dwarves couldn’t go within a hundred miles of their former homeland for centuries after, and those humans who survived, along with their descendants, always lived in the shadow of the dragon’s threat.

“Until nearly 200 years later; a wizard by the name of Gandalf the Grey met up with the dwarf-king’s rightful heir, and organised a quest to take back the mountain from Smaug. Together, with a company of twelve other dwarves and a _burglar_ they’d hired, they marched across Middle-Earth on the mountain, gaining help from the human fishermen who lived on the lake closest to the mountain.

“But when the burglar went in to steal a piece of treasure with which the prince could rally the dwarf armies, from under the dragon who had now slept for _sixty years_ ; Smaug awoke and caught him in his lair. Upon working out that the people on the lake had had a hand in helping the dwarves, Smaug flew off from the mountain and descended on the town in a rage, _setting the lake on fire_ …

“A lone bowman made a brave, defiant stand against the dragon, shooting him down on the lake; with the very last black arrow that had once belonged to his ancestor, through the very same gap in the scales that his ancestor had inflicted… The greatest dragon in dwarves’ and Men’s living memory was _slain_!”

Aerrow felt like he was retracting back into the cave from a fantastical story, his breath taken away by the tale the shopkeeper had spun. It took Aerrow a moment to find his voice.

“But…” Aerrow murmured, realising something; “if Smaug was killed over this lake, then…”

“How is he alive?” Arygyn finished, grinning in a way that could turn anyone’s frown upside-down.

“Seek out _the One Who Sees Forward_.” Aerrow was surprised to realise the golden-lined robed Guardian was speaking; the one who had always been silent before. “With her, you will find the last answer that you seek…”

“Let me get this straight,” Aerrow said, his head aching slightly, “you just told me the Battle for Atmos is coming, and now you’re just gonna leave?”

“We have no choice,” the purple-bearded Guardian said softly. “Our time on Atmos _has come to an end_ …” All three of the Guardians before Aerrow bowed their heads, and in a swirling flash of rainbow-like light, their human forms were gone. Their bird forms were flying out through an opening in the cave.

“But I need your help!” Aerrow called after them, as he and Radarr were left with Arygyn and the shopkeeper.

“Don’t worry about it, boy,” the shopkeeper spoke softly, putting a reassuring hand on Aerrow’s shoulder, looking him in the eye. “If you and your friend are _half_ the Sky Knight squadron I think you are, you’ll pull through against that dragon no matter the odds…” Then the shopkeeper transformed into the same bird-form as his three fellows, and flew out after them, leaving Aerrow staring.

“Don’t sweat it too much, kid,” Arygyn, the only Guardian left, said. “We like to think we’re all that!” He waved his hands out in front of him for effect. Then he too transformed, although the bird lingered in front of Aerrow, hovering on beautiful wings. “But I’ve got a feeling you’ll do _just fine without us_ …” Then Arygyn too flew off, as Aerrow and Radarr stared in awe. They ran to the opening in time to see the five birds flying out to the skies, into the _west_ ; never to return.

* * *

Piper struggled to push a huge crate twice her height. Gundstaff gave her a hand, easily picking the crate up, adding it to the barricade in front of them.

“They’re not getting in through that way,” he declared. The ceiling above them rumbled, then suddenly collapsed, sending rubble raining down on Gundstaff. The giant was swiftly knocked out cold to the floor. The Talons descended through the opening they’d made; firing madly at everything in the hut, until the leader stopped them with a raised arm.

“Over here!” a voice called. The Talons looked to see Piper standing on the floor, grinning confidently, holding two handfuls of crystals. The Talons flew straight for her. Leaping several times higher than was humanly possible as both her hands glowed, Piper hovered in the air as the Talons fired. Stretching her left arm, the crystals projected a glowing barrier in front of her. Then she unleashed her right handful, blasting a bright-red beam at the nearest Switchblade. The Talon’s ride transformed into a rocking horse in the air, a second before both dropped to the floor like stones.

The remaining Talons continued firing at Piper. Twisting to avoid their shots, she flew right through the air around the room, the Talons chasing her like bees. Turning round, Piper unleashed another, combined blast from both hands with a cry; the explosion making several Switchblades drop like flies and crash. Another Switchblade fired at Piper, and she blasted it to smoke easily. Then another’s shot missed too close to her – and hit a huge tank at the wall, sending it falling on Piper as she cried out.

_CRASH!_

Piper groaned on the floor, gravity having regained its hold on her. Only when she looked at her hands did she notice the crystals were gone. The last remaining Talon hovered tauntingly in the air as she looked up.

“Looks like you’re out of crystals, girl,” he growled.

“Huh, lucky for me I don’t need one!” Piper exclaimed, grinning. Suddenly, Gundstaff smashed the Switchblade and its rider clean out of the air like swatting a fly. Piper was both surprised and touched, when the next thing the scarred giant did was reach a huge hand towards Piper, helping her to her feet.

“I have only seen _one_ other wield the crystals like that,” Gundstaff murmured, eyes wide with awe. “Cyclonis!” Piper’s face immediately shifted with shock, and perhaps a hint of concern…

* * *

Repton went skidding and sliding onto the wide balcony with a cry. Stork slowly crept out of the fortress towards him, looking mean as anything. Repton could hardly believe the shocking ferocity that this scheming cretin of a Storm Hawk was displaying – he’d been unable to believe that it was _him_ who had taken out his brothers when the Merp had fought his way into the fortress. But Repton would show him what happened to those who messed with the lizard-king regardless.

Getting back to his feet, Repton lashed out his tail at the Merp. Stork leapt supernaturally-clear of the blow, kicking out at Repton’s face faster than lightning. Repton was instantly slammed into a bone-pole at the railings, falling to the floor. Stork was above him in an instant, panting. Repton almost had to wonder if there was some otherworldly force fuelling the Storm Hawk.

A moment passed. Then Repton’s eye opened, bladed pupil deathly-thin. Tail coiling around Stork’s ankle too fast for him to react, Repton threw him hard. Stork’s body broke straight through the chain railings, leaving him dangling above a _very_ far drop through the clouds at Bogaton’s edge, as Repton’s tail held his ankle.

“What made you think _you could beat ME_?!” Repton growled, standing triumphantly on the balcony edge.

“I didn’t,” Stork replied in a low voice, looking into Repton’s face as he dangled upside-down. “When you blew up the _Condor_ , I had no reason to go on. All I wanted was to _TAKE YOU WITH ME_!” Faster than Repton could respond, Stork grabbed onto his tail and pulled hard. The Raptor fell over the edge with a cry, and just managed to grab onto the balcony with one three-fingered hand.

“You _fool_!” Repton screeched at the Merp holding onto his tail, both of them now dangling above a deathly-high fall. “It was _just a ship_!” Stork physically flinched at the words like they were a disgrace to the gods, his visible eye madly wide.

“You… _take. That. BACK_!” Stork bit hard into Repton’s tail, making him cry out in pain.

“I _mean_ ,” Repton yelled desperately, feeling his grip slipping; “it can be… _repaired_!” Stork’s vicious bite-hold lessened, then loosened, clarity finally returning to his large eyes.

“Oh, hm,” Stork deadpanned quietly, looking lost for words as he stared outward. “I guess in all the excitement I… I didn’t think about that.” Registering the whistling wind around him, Stork looked down… and down and down to the endless drop through the clouds. A high shriek escaped his throat, then he frantically climbed up Repton’s form, back onto the balcony. Getting back to his two feet, Stork looked back at Repton; who stared almost accusingly at him, dangling by one hand.

“Give me your hand,” Stork commanded, reaching out his hand. He was the one who’d gotten Repton here in the first place, and he didn’t intend to become a murderer _today_.

“My hand?” Repton hissed in a sickly-sweet voice, his free hand reaching unnoticed for the energy boomerang on his belt…

_ROARRR!_

The powerful noise suddenly exploded through the air. Repton and Stork looked wide-eyed to the skies; in time to see a silhouetted dragon fly upon Terra Bogaton seemingly from out of nowhere. Twisting low over the desert-jungle, Smaug unleashed his fire upon the forestry, setting a quarter of it aflame.

“ _NO_!” Repton shrieked in rage, suddenly crawling back onto the balcony. Shoving a distracted Stork to the floor, Repton glared out at the dragon that unleashed more fire on the terra, roasting it alive. Repton sprinted into his fortress, and three seconds later, his Bone-Wing flew out another opening. He flew straight towards Smaug like he were on a suicide-run.

Looking on, Stork didn’t need to be a genius to know it was time to go. He ran into the fortress, and a few seconds later, was flying out on another Bone-Wing. Though he flew in a different direction, fleeing the doomed terra.

Flying onwards, Repton threw his energy boomerang at the dragon’s crimson hide – it bounced right off. Smaug immediately turned his gaze onto Repton, fiery eyes filled with dark glee. Repton had only a fleeting moment to feel like an ant under the huge beast’s penetrating gaze, before Smaug smashed Repton’s ride to pieces with a lash of his tail. Repton screamed as he fell from the air, the flame-engulfed forest rising up to greet him.

* * *

Stork had made for the Storm Hawks’ emergency rendezvous, as had Piper after fighting off the Talons with Gundstaff’s help. Aerrow had done the same after fighting off Snipe’s over-armed battle-cruiser, tricking Snipe into fatally blasting at his own ship. Finn had gotten a ride to the site from the rubbish-ship he’d gotten away on, and the clown-wrestlers had given Junko a ride from the pit-stop.

It was Terra Neverlandis; a tiny, plain terra covered in sweeping grass, with a single tree standing on its peak. It had been Aerrow, Piper, Radarr and Finn’s home, before the Guardians had told them of their destiny to revive the Storm Hawks nearly a year ago; they’d left afterwards, feeling they no longer belonged there.

Stork was the last to arrive, and everyone was pleased to see him. He told them what had happened on Terra Bogaton, finishing with the part about how on the way here; he’d run into the Terradon scientists, who’d also escaped Bogaton when Smaug had attacked. They had offered the Storm Hawks anything they wanted, for helping liberate them in the past.

“Um, yeah,” Finn murmured as Stork finished the story. “You mind telling me again how it was _you_ that took down Repton, and not Smaug?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Stork snapped harshly. “All that matters…” He looked at the _Condor_ blueprints like they were an angel sent from heaven. “…is that we’re _getting her back_.”

“So that was all the Guardians told you?” Piper asked Aerrow, after he’d finished telling her about the Guardians and what they’d said. Piper had been hooked like a fish to hear about how Arygyn and the shopkeeper were with the Guardians, and to hear what they’d said about Smaug’s past. It explained so much about Piper’s visions and where Smaug came from! And it left many more questions.

“They said, find the One Who Sees Forward…” Aerrow murmured thoughtfully, scratching the back of his head. “And they said she was a _she_ …” Piper looked at the floor in thought, trying to work out who that could be.

* * *

The two guards threw the bruised, dirt-caked former-general to his hands and knees on the floor. Snipe looked fearfully up at his Master, stood still with her back to him; even he knew there was only one thing he could do.

“Mercy!” he pleaded weakly, putting his hands together in front of his face. “ _Please_!”

“You may live,” Cyclonis spoke coldly.

“Thank you!” Snipe gasped in relief. He literally crawled on his hands, kissing at his Master’s boots pathetically.

“ _In the Wasteland_!” she hissed, with a frightening scowl of disgust as she looked down at him, snapping her fingers to the two guards. Horror flashed across Snipe’s face, before the guards were carrying him away. He kicked and screamed in protest like he were being led to the gallows.

“No! No! _NOOO!!_ ”

“There’s a reason I’m being merciful, Snipe,” Cyclonis said, her voice as cold as ice as she turned around. “Your failure is _irrelevant_.

“Soon, it will be too late for the Storm Hawks, or _anyone_ , to _stop me_ ,” she hissed, looking back to the work on her desk. An intricate parchment containing an accurate image of the door from Terra Tropica, with formulae and calculations. Right next to that, a smaller parchment, depicting what looked like a crown made of jagged teeth. And above both parchments like a paperweight, lay the forearm-sized broken tooth of Smaug. “Once I have the key, _this will be all over_ …”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone who’s wondering regarding the timing between when Aerrow first saw the Guardians and sees them again; the timeline I’m operating on for this universe is that the events of the entire Storm Hawks series – from ‘Origins’ through to the end of ‘Cyclonia Rising’ – take place over the course of exactly one year.


	18. Revelations

_The three hooded figures, hidden under a tree, watched the five youngsters racing across the grass to their new ship._

_“Jubilation!” the purple-bearded member in silver-lined robes cheered. “The_ Condor _is found, a mighty squadron rebuilt!”_

 _His dark-robed comrade harrumphed, unimpressed. “They’re a bunch of orphans. What do they know about_ saving the Atmos _?”_

_“They know courage!” the purple-bearded cheered optimistically, his high spirits unshakeable like a barnacle stuck to a rock. Then he looked to the silent third man, in golden-lined robes, sitting meditatively. “What say you, master?”_

_“The boy will be… a_ Sky Knight _,” the man spoke in a heavy, wise voice. The purple-bearded was jovial at the answer._

 _“And what of the girl?” he asked softly. “Is she…_ the one _?”_

_“Only time… will tell,” the master replied, smiling under his thick moustache._

* * *

The Storm Hawks were pleased that over a dozen volunteers from across the Atmos had come to help rebuild the _Condor_ after news of their situation had spread. Though the seeming leap in progress was broken when Junko pointed out an improvement to the _Condor_ ’s design he’d drawn on the blueprints; and Finn wanted an improvement to the bathtub drawn in as well, and all the squadron started leaping on things they thought they should improve.

After about half an hour of drawing on the blueprints and bickering over the modifications, the guys were looking critically at the various additions, drawn in orange on every free space of blueprint wider than five inches.

“At least we’ve agreed on the size of the cup holders,” Aerrow murmured.

“Extra medium,” Junko said jovially.

“Fill her up!” Finn added.

“Now,” Aerrow spoke up, clapping his hands together, “can we decide on some weapon modifications?”

“Sure, as soon as we remove the _gumball machine someone just added_!” Stork hissed the last part, shooting a glare as he rubbed out the modification.

“But, it’ll be _free_ ,” Junko said, eyes pleading. “ _No coins_.”

“Sorry to interrupt your _important engineering decisions_ -” Piper shot a sarcastic look at the last part as she approached the guys “-but I just got word of possible Cyclonian activity back in the Forbidden City!”

“ _Forbidden City_?” Finn echoed, looking over Aerrow’s shoulder. “Been there, done that!”

“That’s where Smaug came from, the first time we were there,” Aerrow remembered, worried.

“Yeah, and if Smaug’s attack on Terra Bogaton means what everyone fears it does, that he’s sided with Cyclonia; then he could have told Cyclonis about something there that we missed,” Piper said gravely.

“Well, if she’s checking out rubble, then _we’re_ checking out rubble,” Aerrow declared, grinning.

“Sure, we could fly there in the _Condor_!” Stork joined the conversation, his voice dripping sarcasm. “Oh, _right_ … It’s not ready yet because _some people_ -” he glared at Finn and Junko “-keep making _design changes_!”

“But really _good_ changes!” Junko defended blandly.

“Total _genius_!” Finn joined in, two thumbs-up. “Well, maybe not the gumball machine…” Junko looked downcast. Aerrow and Piper shared a look; it was pretty obvious to them who would be going on this one.

“Piper and I will go,” Aerrow said. “You guys stay here and finish the ship. You think you can keep the arguing to a minimum?”

“I will if they will,” Stork said childishly.

“You can count on us, Aerrow,” Junko said, smiling reassuringly.

“No problem,” Finn supported. Radarr saluted.

* * *

Aerrow was pretty pleased to be taking the new Skimmer and Heliscooter out for a spin, much to Piper’s amusement; they were the same designs, just remade rather than fixed up.

The journey to Terra Xoam was smooth sailing, and the jungle-terra was coming up ahead of them; when Talons suddenly attacked Aerrow and Piper out of nowhere. Piper used her new crystal-harnessing gift to jam the Talons’ comms so they couldn’t call it in, though she’d been separated from Aerrow by her Heliscooter malfunctioning. Aerrow worked on taking the Talons down, but Piper finished them off with another crystal-power move that rippled outward to the skies, throwing every Talon off their ride. Piper found she was liking her new crystal-harnessing power more than she did her Smaug-bond, which she had to be careful about overusing lest Smaug get an advantage.

Swooping onto the natural dirt-roads of Terra Xoam, Aerrow and Piper’s sky-rides switched to land-mode as they rode through the jungle.

“Okay…” Piper murmured at the sight of two Cyclonian cruisers, moored far overhead through the trees. “I think _this_ qualifies as Cyclonian activity…”

“But, why?” Aerrow questioned. “The first time we were here, the only thing to find – besides the booby traps – was the Oracle. But I freed her and she disappeared.” Thinking of the Oracle, another doubt that had niggled at the back of Aerrow’s head for months resurfaced – what if, when he’d freed the Oracle, he’d somehow unleashed Smaug?

Piper saw what Aerrow was thinking from his face. “Aerrow, with the gap the Guardians left in their story about what happened, we don’t know what brought Smaug into Atmos alive,” she said. “We don’t even know if he’s the reason the Cyclonians are here.”

“Maybe…” Aerrow murmured, unsure.

“We’ll just have to go back in and find out,” Piper said, determined eyes fixed ahead as the two came upon a re-dug tunnel entrance. Aerrow and Piper rode straight through, into the cavernous subterranean ways leading to the Forbidden City.

Looking around, Piper saw the whole place was still just a pile of ruins. She and Aerrow were halfway to the Forbidden City, when a floor-trap in the tunnel suddenly sprung underneath them; launching the pair and their rides into the overgrown ceiling, leaving them hanging from the vines, an uncomfortable thirty feet above the floor. Before Piper could get them down with her crystals, Cyclonis herself and the Dark Ace came riding into the tunnel from the same entrance they’d come. Aerrow and Piper hoped the two wouldn’t notice them, as they were dismounting their Switchblades and proceeding on foot – though the ancient ceiling was cracking from the weight of holding Aerrow, Piper and their rides. At one point, a piece of the ceiling came away, falling right to Cyclonis’ feet. But when the Cyclonian empress looked up, she only saw broken ceiling and no Storm Hawks. Piper had Gundstaff to thank for the cloaking crystal. Cyclonis and the Dark Ace hadn’t gone ahead ten seconds too soon, before Aerrow and Piper fell to the floor.

“Careful,” Piper warned Aerrow as they went down the dark archway after Cyclonis and the Dark Ace. “There’s lots of booby traps still working.”

“You think?” Aerrow whispered, shooting a grin which Piper couldn’t help returning.

They didn’t have to walk very far, before they came to the same room where Aerrow had freed the Oracle nearly six months ago. The Inner Sanctum was complete with the same piles of treasure still lining the walls, which Aerrow had told Finn didn’t exist. At the centre of the room where the Oracle’s statue had once stood, Cyclonis walked up the pedestal, crystal-staff in hand, whilst the Dark Ace stood back. Aerrow and Piper watched, crouched behind the rubble, as Cyclonis started hissing in a strange language, pointing her staff.

“I’m not fluent in weird incantations,” Aerrow whispered. “What’s she saying?”

“She’s not saying, she’s _summoning_ ,” Piper whispered. The answer hit them both in the space of one second, eyes widening with awe.

“ _The Oracle_!” they murmured together.

A moment later, as the two watched; the rubble on the pedestal started glowing bright-purple, in tune with the crystal on Cyclonis’ staff. Then a ghostly figure rose from the pedestal and took shape in the air – a beautiful woman with waist-length hair; the same one who Aerrow had freed from the statue.

Cyclonis grinned wickedly at the spirit before her.

“To compel me here after I’ve been freed of this place,” the Oracle murmured in that ethereal voice, “requires great power, and _great need_.” Though it was difficult to tell with her ever-neutral voice, she didn’t seem pleased to be brought back. “What is it you seek from me?” she asked the witch-warlord before her, whose grin was spreading.

“It’s simple, really,” Cyclonis purred smugly like a cat. “I have a door to the Far Side of Atmos. Only one problem: it’s locked. _Where is the key_?” A rather nasty scowl crossed Cyclonis’ face.

“What gives you reason to think _I_ know of such a key?” the Oracle murmured.

“ _Enough with the games_!” Cyclonis snapped loudly, her patience ending surprisingly quick. “I know now that this temple was built to safeguard the key, with _you_ as its great protector.” Cyclonis held out her hand, projecting a holographic-looking image of a particular rounded stone. “Look familiar?”

Aerrow’s green eyes widened at the image whilst Piper’s amber ones narrowed.

“ _Very_ familiar,” Piper murmured. She pulled the same round stone out of her satchel – it was the one Aerrow had given her when they’d first come here, the Oracle Stone that had seemingly lost its power when the Oracle had been freed.

“When the Oracle gave it to me, I figured it was just a dud!” Aerrow exclaimed, whispering in awe.

“I’ve had the key the whole time!” Piper looked at him with equal shock.

“I also know that that isn’t the only reason you were placed here,” Cyclonis said to the spirit, making Aerrow and Piper listen. “I know there was a dragon buried asleep here, for hundreds of years; and that _you_ were brought into this world to watch over him, until the day he woke up when you were set free!” Aerrow and Piper shared another shocked look with each-other. They’d both suspected it, but only now were hearing it confirmed: _Aerrow had unleashed Smaug when he’d freed the Oracle_?!

“What of it?” the Oracle murmured calmly.

“ _Why_?” Cyclonis demanded loudly, seemingly growing angrier by the second. “What was the purpose? And what about the dragon’s connection to a certain _girl_ ; what does he gain from that?!” Piper and Aerrow’s breaths caught in their throats again as they heard Cyclonis say she knew of Smaug and Piper’s bond.

“She will know herself when the time has come,” the Oracle responded calmly. Cyclonis pointed her staff threateningly at the spirit.

“Tell me or be destroyed!” she yelled loudly. “ _Where… is the key_?!”

“Now in the safekeeping of the _Ultimate Guardians of Atmos_ ,” the Oracle murmured in a whispery tone, stretching out a hand as though to the heavens.

“And they are?” Cyclonis asked rudely. Aerrow and Piper exchanged looks over their greatest shock of the day.

“ _Us_?!” they said in unison. The Oracle hadn’t answered Cyclonis’ last question; she seemed to sense their conversation was almost at an end.

“Destroying a spirit is far easier said than done,” the Oracle whispered calmly.

“Easier if you know _how_ ,” Cyclonis challenged arrogantly. The Oracle returned the girl’s grin with a smirk of her own. Pointing her staff, the crystal on the end shone a similar violet to the spirit. The Oracle groaned as though in pain, the spirit’s outline shimmering and becoming faint.

“I’ve been studying far more than just the key to the doorway and the dragon that was buried here,” Cyclonis said smugly, the spirit’s form curling up like an animal waiting to die. “And I know how to destroy you. So unless you-” A blast knocked Cyclonis’ staff clean out of her hands before she’d finished. She turned round, glaring, to see a familiar redheaded Sky Knight standing in the chamber.

“Nobody likes a know-it-all!” Aerrow exclaimed, twin lightning-blades in hand. Cyclonis simply reached out her hand and her staff flew back into her palm. She was glaring angrily. But in the one moment of distraction, the Oracle had shaken off the ill-effects and was shooting away. Cyclonis looked back in time to see the spirit fly for the wall. She shot a blast at it in rage – which hit the stone wall right behind the spirit’s disappearance. Cyclonis whirled back round to face Aerrow and Piper, scowling.

“Even the two of you couldn’t keep me from that key!” she said. “Not when I’m this close!” She fired a red bolt at Piper – who disappeared, like an edit to a film reel, a millisecond before the bolt would have hit her. She reappeared behind Cyclonis; shooting a blast from the Warp Crystal she’d used, which the empress barely deflected with her staff. Cyclonis reached out her hand in a grasping motion. Piper tried to hold on, but the Warp Crystal flew out of her grip and into Cyclonis’.

“Not bad,” the witch commented, grinning at Piper.

“You’ll find I’m full of surprises!” Piper yelled, reaching into her satchel again.

“Oh, _really_?” Cyclonis purred challengingly. Unleashing a furious cry, Piper brought two crystals in either hand together in front of her, shooting a raging blue beam outward. Cyclonis unleashed a blazing-red beam from her staff, the two energies meeting at the centre between the two girls.

Aerrow meanwhile, took on the Dark Ace. Who unleashed a red bolt from his energy-sabre, which Aerrow easily deflected with his blades; sending one red blast shooting back at the Dark Ace, who barely deflected with his sabre.

“You’re not the only one with a few surprises today,” Cyclonis cooed tauntingly at Piper in their beam-duel. She’d been experimenting on the Dark Ace with a crystal-mage art ever since the door to the Far Side had been found; one that hadn’t been practiced in hundreds of years. “Dark Ace.” Looking over at her henchman, bright-gold light suddenly built across Cyclonis’ form – then she expelled it along her arm, shooting it from her hand into the Dark Ace. “ _Feather’s Flight_!”

The Dark Ace physically floated off of the floor as Aerrow looked, astonished; a nasty grin spreading on the golden-glowing Cyclonian’s face.

“You’re going to _love_ this!” he shouted malevolently at Aerrow, whole body floating higher, closer to the ceiling as he circled around. Aerrow shot first. Faster than one could react, the Dark Ace swooped at Aerrow quicker than an eagle; throwing him to the floor.

Still locked in her duel with Piper, Cyclonis managed to reach out her free hand again, shooting a pinkish-red beam into the Dark Ace. “ _Speed of Light_!”

The Dark Ace’s glowing aura changed colour accordingly as he rounded back on Aerrow. “Want to try again?!” Aerrow was just getting back up, when the Dark Ace harshly pulled him to his feet by the scruff of his clothing.

“Go ahead,” the red-glowing Dark Ace challenged, grinning widely like a child taunting others whom they knew were too weak to beat them. “Hit me!” Aerrow hesitated for a few seconds, panting, but then he swung his lightning-blades. At every swing, the Dark Ace’s image flit from where he was to _just_ out of the strike’s range.

“Come on,” he taunted, teleporting behind Aerrow. Aerrow swung at him, and the Dark Ace shifted out of range. “Not like that. Like _THIS_!” Aerrow couldn’t react before the Dark Ace’s blow connected, sending him flying across the chamber, landing hard to the floor.

Piper looked over from her duel, seeing the limp form on the floor. “ _Aerrow_!”

The distraction was just what Cyclonis needed to plough her staff’s beam through to the crystals in Piper’s hands, ending their duel in a flash. Piper immediately leapt to the side, Cyclonis’ beam blasting the wall behind her; already reaching into her satchel-

“Let’s relieve you of that bag of tricks,” Cyclonis hissed, pointing her staff. The satchel immediately began fighting Piper’s hold, trying to telekinetically fly to Cyclonis. Piper held on hard. With a grunt, Cyclonis shifted the telekinetic field – and Piper’s whole body floated clean off the floor, high into the air as Cyclonis pointed.

Opening his eyes, Aerrow’s vision slightly cleared, to the unpleasant image of the red-glowing Dark Ace cackling.

“ _Titan’s Might_!” Cyclonis yelled, unleashing a bright green beam through her free hand into the Dark Ace. He growled more like an animal than a man at the new power coursing through him.

“Aerrow, _get out of there_!” Piper screamed, suspended upside-down. She was now drawing the power of her Smaug-bond, but it was taking longer than usual to build. Piper just saw the spherical stone slip from her upside-down satchel, frantically tried to grab it – too late. The crystal fell to the floor, landing at Cyclonis’ feet. She looked down at it.

“ _The key_!” she exclaimed, purple eyes wide. Looking back up at Piper floating in the air, Cyclonis’ expression could not have been more bewildered. “The Ultimate Guardians of Atmos… the _Storm Hawks_?!” she exclaimed, disbelieving.

Piper just glared, then unleashed a violent invisible thunderclap from her hands. The telekinetic field instantly shattered, and the force made Cyclonis stumble a few feet, the chamber shaking. Piper landed gracefully in a crouching pose, grinning. There was an advantage to having two different powers at once, even if they conflicted and drained each-other.

“So there _is_ a link between you and Smaug that you can pull on for strength,” Cyclonis hissed, whirling back around to glare at Piper. “How _interesting_ …!” Piper just glared back, then shot a beam from the crystal in hand at the green-glowing Dark Ace, who’d been about to drop a giant pillar on Aerrow. The beam was very thin and weak, missing the Dark Ace to shoot through the space between his head and the pillar. He looked, sending Piper a nasty chuckle.

Looking at the spherical stone, Piper leapt for it, Cyclonis moving to stop her. Piper’s foot reached the stone before Cyclonis’ hand, sending it rolling away, falling into a crack in the floor. Cyclonis grinned challengingly at Piper – who abruptly lashed out with a sweeping kick that brought Cyclonis’ legs out, then leapt for the crack the stone had fallen down.

Fully waking to the Dark Ace’s cackle, Aerrow saw him holding a huge pillar above his head, ready to drop it on him.

“Goodbye, _Aerrow_.” The Dark Ace threw – and the giant pillar was shot clean out of his hands, smashing to the floor several metres away.

Piper grinned at what she’d done, two crystals in hand. Drawing on the Smaug-bond’s power temporarily hindered her crystal-power and vice versa, but this had still done the trick. A powerful red blast suddenly shot Piper twenty feet across the floor. Cyclonis stood grinning as Piper lay incapacitated, then looked down at the glowing stone in the crack. She opened her hand above it.

Getting back to her feet, Piper saw the spherical violet crystal float into Cyclonis’ palm, her fingers curling around it like a spider’s legs.

“ _At last_!” Cyclonis hissed.

“ _NOOO_!” Piper screamed in denial, eyes wide. This couldn’t be how it ends!

“Enough games!” the Dark Ace growled, no longer glowing as he pointed his crystal-sabre at Aerrow. “It’s _over_!” Seeing the Cyclonian threaten Aerrow; on top of the key, the crystal, all that they’d learned and what had happened; something inside Piper both literal and metaphorical lashed out with her crystal-power.

“ _Leave him ALONE_!”

A brilliant blue light shot out of Piper and into Aerrow, who cried out in surprise. Piper felt herself and Aerrow’s very energies, their _souls_ , become anchored to each-other in a manner unlike anything she’d ever known before – it was very different from the bond with Smaug, there were no words to put it into.

The Dark Ace seemingly didn’t notice the threat, swinging a finishing blow with his crystal-sabre. He stared, shocked, as Aerrow caught the blow with his hand like the blade were a plastic ruler. Aerrow too look surprised for a moment. Then he crushed the sabre’s blade in his grip, the red flare snuffed out; bending the metal like clay as the Dark Ace’s eyes went wide. Then the blue-glowing redhead swung a punch at the Cyclonian’s face – the force in the blow sent the Dark Ace slamming into a pillar far across the chamber, the structure’s top section falling on him as he hit the floor.

“ _Wow_!” Piper exclaimed, wide-eyed.

“Yeah…” Aerrow murmured, looking at his hands, at a loss for any other words as the blue glow on him faded. Suddenly, the whole chamber started rumbling around them, dust raining from the ceiling as it prepared to collapse.

Cyclonis made a reaching gesture with her hand, and the dazed Dark Ace floated through the air towards her, his limbs dangling off the floor like a puppet’s. She put the Dark Ace down beside her, the two taking off for the exit. Seeing the ceiling start falling, Piper used a sweeping gesture to telekinetically throw Aerrow out of a falling chunk’s path just in time.

The two Switchblades shot fast through the tunnel as stalagmites fell, making a beeline for the exit dead ahead. Emerging into the open, the rides skidded to a stop, kicking up dust. The two could feel the ground shaking under their feet as they looked back to the tunnel they’d just emerged from.

“We should make sure they’re finished,” the Dark Ace insisted.

“I’m not wasting any more time on _them_ ,” Cyclonis said coldly. Besides, it suited her better to hope Piper got out of that alive, lest Smaug get upset over her death. “We have _everything_ we need.” She held up the violet stone, grinning.

“But the girl,” the Dark Ace murmured, clearly worried. “She has the power now too…”

“And it will destroy her before she can ever learn to control it,” Cyclonis replied darkly. Those who practiced that particular crystal-art needed _perfect synchronisation_ of emotion and thought for it to work _perfectly_ , perfection which took _years_ of practice. Without it, the crystal-mage’s energies would be slowly leeched away, killing them – or doing something else to them if they were strong enough to bare it. Perfect attunement was something not even Cyclonis was capable of.

“You shouldn’t worry, Dark Ace,” she told her right hand, whose red eyes still shifted uncertainly. “The Storm Hawks are _finished_!” Cyclonis rode her royal Switchblade forward, the Dark Ace right behind her, both switching to flight mode and soaring off to the skies.

* * *

Only once the ceiling had stopped collapsing and the huge chunk atop them had rolled away, did Piper let the forcefield on her and Aerrow dissipate.

“Aerrow, the key!” she exclaimed, despairing as they both stood up. “I can’t believe I lost it… to _her_.”

“We’ll get it back,” Aerrow insisted.

“How?” Piper questioned bitterly, gesturing to the place around them. “Didn’t you see what happened in there? We can never fight against a power like that!”

“Not unless you had it too.”

Aerrow and Piper looked up at the sound of the voice, to see the Oracle’s ghostly form come swirling back into the chamber through the solid wall.

“ _The Oracle_?” Aerrow exclaimed.

“I’ve been expecting both of you, Sky Knight, to return here since you set me free,” the Oracle murmured, hovering above the two Storm Hawks. The mention of setting her free brought something else to Aerrow’s thoughts.

“Is it true what Cyclonis said?” he asked her, brows slightly furrowed. “Did I release Smaug when I set you free?”

“Yes,” the Oracle answered calmly. “My spirit was sent into this world, born into mortal form from a womb, to guard the Dragon that would be buried by the civilisation I helped to guide; and my duty carried long after my mortal form perished to age.” Aerrow didn’t immediately know what to make of the Oracle’s answer, experiencing many feelings.

“But… _why_?” Piper asked, unable to understand any of this.

“To let a different path begin, where the Enemy of Atmos will not win,” the Oracle explained in her neutral tone.

“But if I’d known then that it would mean letting Smaug loose and everything that he’s done…” Aerrow protested, troubled.

“Wait, what did you mean when you said you’ve been expecting us?” Piper asked, the thought suddenly occurring to her.

“You have already seen the Guardians and been told by them of the Dragon’s origins,” the Oracle said, not needing the confirmation – after all, she could see the future. A lightbulb went off above Piper’s head.

“ _The One Who Sees Forward_!” she echoed the Guardians’ words, looking in awe at the spirit. “As in the one who can see into the future! _You_ , _the Oracle_!” Aerrow gave a surprised look, whilst the spirit smiled softly.

“What is it you seek from me?” the Oracle asked in a way that, despite her neutral voice, sounded friendlier than when she’d said it to Cyclonis. Piper chewed her words carefully before speaking.

“What happened after Smaug was shot at the town on the lake?”

“ _Ah_ ,” the Oracle murmured in the exact same tone Aerrow remembered from six months ago. “ _See for yourself_.” The Oracle spread her arms wide, a bright violet flash erupting from her, engulfing everything as Piper was drawn into a vision.

 _It was a different sensation from when Piper had experienced visions over her Smaug-bond; hard to put into words. She were not just seeing the images and hearing the sounds play out, but it was like she were experiencing_ deeper _meanings to the events. Like she was reading a book and picturing the story unfolding in her head, rather than watching a film of it play._

_Once again, the large arrow with the unique jewelled head – which she now knew to be a black arrow, and the last one in Smaug’s time after he’d lost a single scale – punctured the gap in the dragon’s scales, burying itself deep in his chest… Smaug cried out, fiery eyes bulging in his head… He pumped, thrashed his wings, climbing above the flaming lake towards the sky, the fight rapidly leaving him. Then the light in his body went out; he fell to the lake, resting just above the waters. But the life in Smaug’s body didn’t all fade to nothingness; the tiny spark retreated deep into his being like a tortoise into its shell, going to a place so dark it were almost-completely nonexistent. All that made up Smaug’s being was stored away, preserved like a tissue sample put on ice._

_Time skipped forward; the world changed, evolved and moved on a hundred times over, but Smaug’s body alone remained unchanging – save that instead of rotting away, the ‘corpse’ hardened its flesh and scales to stone-like grey as though it were calcifying. Civilisations rising and falling, evolution, cataclysm; thousands of years passed in each blink of an eye. Smaug’s unchanging body was buried deeper into the layers of the earth, preserved against the sands of time, as the world continued to build up and move on around it._

_Then, at a time Piper knew was recent, no more than some thousand years before the present; Smaug’s body was unearthed by an ancient civilisation, purely by chance. One particular excavator investigated a light shining in the hole on the stone beast’s chest, where the black arrow had shot Smaug many eras ago – and the person pulled a small crystalline shard out in their hand. It was shaped like a perfectly-cut arrowhead. It initially shone the same clear-silver as the black arrow’s head-jewel, but then its colour faded in the person’s hand to sky-blue._

_The ancient people placed Smaug’s stone body at the heart of their terra, afterwards building the Forbidden City above it. The blue shard that the one excavator had pulled from Smaug’s chest, was passed down to their children, and their children’s children. On and on through centuries as the family line survived, a subtle heirloom that was almost never lost nor thrown away; when it was, it always found its way back to the hands of its rightful owners’ descendants. Until finally, it was handed by Piper’s father down to her when she’d been three years old._

_A meagre decade of time’s passage later; Aerrow slashed open the stone imprisoning the Oracle, releasing her spirit in a brilliant flash. After that happened, the bigger shred of the crystal that remained inside Smaug’s chest, shone clear-silver as the dragon was restored to life. An invisible tether leapt out from Smaug’s heart to space – and went straight for the sky-blue shard worn on Piper’s neck. Using that like a focusing lens, it connected into Piper’s soul, and she and Smaug were bound to each-other. In the moment that Piper discovered this, actually_ felt _the bond between them forming; it suddenly became clear to her how exactly she could defeat Smaug._

As the vision ended and she returned to the Inner Sanctum, Piper was at a loss for words.

“Piper, are you okay?” Aerrow murmured. She simply looked at the arrowhead-shaped shard worn her neck, reaching a hand to touch it. She could hardly believe that _this_ , the shard that had belonged to her father and was the only piece she had left of her old family; was what had connected her to Smaug. When she looked up at Aerrow, he saw by her eyes that she now knew _everything_.

“What happens now, after we’ve begun this _different path_?” Aerrow asked, looking at the Oracle uncertainly.

“I can only share very little with you of what is now to come, and only _you_ can decide which of the possible outcomes it is that comes to pass,” the Oracle murmured. Then she spoke in an ominous tone as the two Storm Hawks listened:

“ _Fallen to Fire and Water,_

_The Dragon shall rise again,_

_And bringing ruin and death,_

_The Enemy shall seek such strength._

_The Dragon’s image of Fire and Death_

_Will mean doom for many again;_

_But those not born to it will hold it to their Wills,_

_And its meaning will forever be changed_.”

Aerrow and Piper exchanged confused looks, bewildered as to what on Atmos that could mean. Before they could think to ask more, the Oracle whooshed back towards the same wall she’d emerged from.

“But wait, what does that mean?” Aerrow called, too late – the spirit was gone. Aerrow’s eyes narrowed, unsure.

Aerrow and Piper left Terra Xoam shortly afterwards, flying back towards Terra Neverlandis. Aerrow had been unsure what to make of what they’d learned, but Piper had reassured him that she now knew how to stop Smaug, had told him everything about what the Oracle had showed her, and that had been enough for Aerrow.

Piper kept her eyes fixed ahead, still processing everything she’d learned: where Smaug had come from, how he’d survived, and how to defeat him. And knowing the role that the crystal on her neck played in all this, still putting her hand to the blue, arrowhead-shaped shard… it gave Piper a sense of empowerment, of confidence and resolve. There were still some questions that weren’t answered, like where the crystal on the black arrow’s head had originally come from. And Piper was concerned about what she’d felt with her crystal-power when she’d channelled it into Aerrow; something _dark_ , _very dark_. But it was enough.

As Piper thought on what she’d learned today, a new vision entered her mind along the bond, un-triggered by contact with Smaug. One which she was sure had nothing to do with relaying hints about Smaug’s past to her…

_The humble house’s residents looked up in horror as dust and woodchips rained from the low ceiling, the wooden foundations shaking with the force of a tremor. Piper instantly recognised Bard, the man who’d shot Smaug when he’d burned the lake-town and who’d been with Gandalf when they’d seen his body._

_“Da?” a small voice spoke._

_“It’s coming from the Mountain!” exclaimed the one boy amongst the three children. He and the older girl were close to Piper’s age, whilst the other girl was much younger. On the other side of the hut, Piper was surprised to see what she realised could only be dwarves – they looked like humans but with a fundamentally-different build, shorter and stockier – attending to one of their number who was crying out in constant pain._

_“You should leave us,” a blonde dwarf said, stepping towards Bard. “Take your children and get out of here.”_

_“And go where?” Bard asked in a quiet voice, brown eyes filled with despair. “There is nowhere to go.”_

_“Are we going to die, Da?” the youngest girl asked Bard._

_“No, darling,” Bard whispered in a reassuring voice that only a father could muster. The little girl wasn’t put at ease._

_“The Dragon, it’s going to kill us!” After a moment’s pause, Bard’s eyes shifted onto a thick cluster of nets and vegetables, hanging from the low rafters a foot from his head. He reached over, and with a tug, pulled a six-foot-long quarrel made of dark metal, free of its hidden place fixed in the ceiling. The three children stared in awe as Bard held out the black arrow, its jewelled head glinting in the dim light._

_“Not if I kill it first!”_

* * *

Cyclonis hovered a foot above the rocky steps, drifting towards the door at the top. For a moment, feelings she thought she’d since extinguished came rising to the surface, uncertainty flitting across her purple eyes for just a second. She was unable to believe it was really here.

Looking to the diamond-shaped slot on the door-pane’s centre, Cyclonis slid the spherical stone in. The inside of the hole glowed fluid-green. A bright violet flash blazed across the door as the panel within the frame vanished; leaving a pane of dark-violet energy, casting deep-purple light and shadows across the hangar. A small, dark grin slowly spread on Cyclonis’ face. She drifted forward into the violet panel, and vanished in a flash to the Far Side of Atmos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My logic presented here for how the Binding works is explained on my Tumblr, and is partly based on fuckyeahstormhawkscreens and Xarciel's pet theories.


	19. Facing the Dragon

The Dark Ace stood in the hangar below the energy-paned doorway; awaiting his Master’s return from the other side since she’d taken a Nightcrawler squad through, nearly thirty-six hours ago.

Suddenly, he got a sense of his warrior instincts, screaming _danger_ at him; all one second before a huge shadow suddenly swept over the hangar. The Dark Ace looked back, in time to see Smaug’s huge shadow come swooping into the hangar through the open bay doors, the vast space great enough to accommodate the dragon as he came to a bounding stop before the tiny Cyclonian. Smaug looked down at the Dark Ace the way one might look at a foul rat beneath them, curling his lip; the human in turn shot an audacious glare right up at the dragon’s face.

“What are _you_ doing here?!” the Dark Ace spat, hostile. Smaug snarled loudly enough to shake any lesser mortal’s spine, eyes blazing with outrage at the mortal’s nerve.

“I’m here by your Master’s invitation,” Smaug snarled through gritted teeth, voice fierce. “Be a _good pet_ and fetch her for me, _before I rip that insolent tongue from your skull_!” Smaug hissed the last part, eyes bright with the promise of fire; he was just _itching_ for the insolent Cyclonian whelp to give him an excuse. It looked like he would as the Dark Ace audaciously growled through gritted teeth-

“Smaug!” Human and dragon both looked over at the sound of Cyclonis’ voice; sounding pleased to see the one she’d named. The witch-empress came floating out of the violet-paned doorway, above the rocky base’s steps. Hovering between her two hands, was a red-glowing crystalline ring that looked like a crown made of jagged teeth. Behind her, a line of Nightcrawlers emerged from the doorway one at a time, new additions to their armour glowing red on their chests.

“It is an honour to receive you,” Cyclonis said, looking _up_ into Smaug’s face, touching the floor within a metre of his huge talons; whilst the Dark Ace looked stunned.

“Spare me the pleasantries!” Smaug snarled curtly. “I came to see if your new Cyclonian power lives up to my _expectations_.”

“I don’t think you’ll be disappointed,” Cyclonis murmured, grinning under her hood as the last Nightcrawlers filed down the doorway’s steps behind her. “Far Side technology is every bit as powerful as I expected.”

Smaug didn’t take the young witch’s word for it, snaking his sneering reptilian face towards one of the new-armoured Nightcrawlers, looking it over with an assessing eye. The Nightcrawlers’ new armour was unlike anything Smaug had ever seen before; red-glowing crystalline vines threaded over their upper-torsos, connecting the large chestplate to the smaller plates on-

_SKREE!!_

Smaug reeled his head back in surprise, barely reigning in the immediate urge to destroy the threat in front of him. The Dark Ace’s reaction was less controlled, drawing his energy-sabre; in the very _decisecond_ the weapon was raised, the Nightcrawler aimed and shot it out of the Dark Ace’s hands. The viper-like monstrosity made of energy that had projected from the chestplate, slinked back into the plate’s glowing red core. Smaug simply narrowed his eyes; an intimidating, unreadable expression creasing his facial features.

“Impressive,” Smaug purred, voice rumbling, looking over at Cyclonis almost approvingly. Then his yellow eyes instantly turned dangerous. “But hardly an achievement to _gloat over_!”

“Oh, but there is more yet, Smaug,” Cyclonis said softly, unfazed. “Perhaps a demonstration of our new arsenal’s resilience, if you so wish…” Cyclonis kept her manners nice, but Smaug still bristled with outrage that she’d _dared_ request the use of his dragonfire, like something to be pawned around! If not for her flattering tone, Smaug would have incinerated the little witch there and then.

Unlike the Dark Ace, the Nightcrawlers had the sense to keep their expressions humble as Smaug looked at them – though Smaug suspected that it was merely on their Master’s orders they were behaving so. They didn’t flinch; Smaug was almost disappointed that he didn’t get to see them scream and run like so many of his prey did. Smaug sucked in a huge breath, his fire’s light building up his chest and neck, and breathed raging fire on the Nightcrawlers. Cyclonis threw up a shield to protect herself, the Dark Ace and the Far Side door as the flames washed over the hangar. When the fire subsided, Smaug was almost shocked to see the Nightcrawlers all still standing there, without so much as a spot of soot. To say that Smaug was overwhelmed would be fairly accurate – dragonfire was one of the hottest forces known in Middle-Earth, nothing could withstand it. Smaug had seen metal, wood and flesh alike melt and disintegrate under the heat of his breath; to see something now that he’d never seen before, which so defied the unstoppable ruinous power of his flame – suffice to say, he was quite angered by it. But he also knew when he had encountered a formidable force that few could fight against. Smaug looked back at Cyclonis, shining eyes dark and unreadable, the shadow creasing his facial features as haunting as his scales’ bloodred colour. A rumble of a breath like a tremor reverberated out between Smaug’s teeth as he brought his head low to the floor, easily dwarfing Cyclonis.

“Very well, I’ve made my decision,” Smaug murmured, tone disturbingly vague, voice rumbling. “The Empire of Cyclonia has the honour of mine, Smaug the Golden’s allegiance.” A grin spread on Cyclonis’ face, unable to contain her pleasure.

“You honour us with your allegiance, Smaug the Golden,” Cyclonis said, bowing. Then, rising, she said: “As a matter of fact, I already have a few targets in mind for you to take out.”

“ _Oh_?” Smaug growled, raising a scaly brow-ridge above one eye, looking at Cyclonis peculiarly. Cyclonis projected an Atmos map image with a gesture of one hand. A systematic series of terras and ports were clearly marked.

“These are the targets that I want destroyed,” Cyclonis said. “After you’ve done that, you may do whatever you wish, provided that Cyclonia’s operations aren’t hindered by your activities. You may even seek out the girl for the power that you two have between you.”

Smaug kept his exterior calm when Cyclonis mentioned Piper, though his facial features darkened momentarily at the thought that what was his was being threatened. Smaug considered putting Cyclonis’ orders on hold and going to find Piper immediately, keep her somewhere safe where the witch couldn’t find her – he was a dragon after all, no-one could compel him!

“I promise you, Smaug, I have no interest in harming the girl nor gaining anything from her,” Cyclonis said, sophisticated and calm. “When I have control of Atmos, you will have free reign to do as you please, so long as you don’t interfere with major Cyclonian affairs. Do you deem that fair?”

Smaug curled his lip at Cyclonis, expression turning savage as his eyes shone – he wasn’t too happy with this new arrangement.

“ _Fair_ ,” Smaug bit out, growling the word as it snaked off his tongue. Without saying anything further, Smaug turned and slithered back to the hangar doors, the Nightcrawlers clearing the dragon’s way. Upon reaching the ledge, Smaug spread his leathery wings, flying out to the bloodred sky.

Cyclonis grinned as she watched the dragon fly off.

“Atmos is as good as mine!” she hissed. “Phase One begins. Nightcrawlers, assemble!”

* * *

Since Cyclonis had retrieved the key to the Far Side three days ago, the Storm Hawks had found Cyclonian activity going deathly silent – like the calm before the storm. Then, starting around 8.00AM, when the skies were still gold with the dawn, radio-reports of attacks on terras started flooding in from all around Atmos; Nightcrawlers were attacking Terra Rex, Aquanos, Gale, Blizzaris, and the count was only rising with every passing hour. It was like Cyclonis was suddenly unleashing everything she had on Atmos. Nightcrawlers weren’t the only problem – there were also distress-calls from southeast terras, saying Smaug was attacking. Piper thought they could now safely assume that Smaug had indeed sided with Cyclonia.

The attacks were occurring too fast for the Storm Hawks to reach every distressed terra, but a fresh report of a Nightcrawler attacking Terra Glockenchime, was close enough for them to get there in time – with a boost from the new _Condor_ ’s scram-jets.

They arrived just too late, seeing the winged Nightcrawler take down the Third Degree Burners, then destroy the Time Pulse on Glockenchime. Whilst Stork rescued the Burners, Aerrow and Piper went out on Aerrow’s Skimmer (with Piper crammed in Radarr’s co-pilot seat) to fight the Nightcrawler with their new crystal-power trick. Harmonising her energies to the crystal, Piper found she didn’t need to reconnect to Aerrow to broadcast the energies into him; it was like there was a permanent conduit between them after what had happened in the Forbidden City.

Piper struggled, her new trick seeming to take a bit out of her, but succeeded just in time to enable Aerrow to fight the Nightcrawler with super-strength. As they wrestled, Aerrow noticed the new armour that Nightcrawlers hadn’t had before. He grabbed it, surprised and reviled when the chestplate screeched and resisted like it were alive, then tore it free. The thing continued shrieking horribly in Aerrow’s hand, as the Nightcrawler flew off.

When Aerrow and Piper returned to the _Condor_ , tossing the chestplate onto the Skimmer-ramp, they were surprised by their fellow Storm Hawks and the Third Degree Burners cheering them.

“ _Yeah_!” Finn punched a fist in the air. “That Nightcrawler just jet-packed home to Momma! _Chicka-cha_!” He raised his hand for a high-five from Junko.

“Sure,” Aerrow said, silencing everyone, “but he was just one.”

“And we only beat him with this other new thing I can do,” Piper supported, “but I’m not very good at it.” Radarr curiously investigated the chestplate, flinching when it twitched a tendon-like tendril.

“We have to figure out what Master Cyclonis is planning,” Aerrow said.

At that moment, the entire sky above their heads rumbled and turned bloodred, casting darkness over everything. A gigantic, violet-glowing image of the Master flickered into the sky, looking down at everything.

“ _Be warned_ ,” she murmured ominously, her voice booming like a terrible thunderclap.

“Or she could just… tell us,” Finn said, eyes bulging.

“ _Atmosia, you have just witnessed the dawning of a new age_ ,” Cyclonis declared, as the Storm Hawks and Third Degree Burners looked and listened. “ _The rising of a great thunderhead_ rumbling _with Cyclonian power! These attacks are but a raindrop compared to the_ storm _my armies can unleash! Surrender now, and your terras shall be subjugated with_ … minimal damage. _You have until sundown_!” Cyclonis flashed one last wicked grin, before the image in the sky vanished and the sunny blue faded back in.

* * *

An hour after Master Cyclonis’ face had appeared in the sky all across Atmos; the Registry Hall on Terra Atmosia was engulfed in shouting, all the gathered Sky Knights bickering back and forth. The Chief Registrar banged his gavel loudly, shouting for order.

A long, clear howl pierced the air, silencing everyone as they turned towards the one who’d made the sound. Looking shy at the attention, Radarr sauntered away. Aerrow stood up from the table behind, which his squadron were at.

“If the terras don’t rise up together, we go down alone!” he proclaimed passionately. “Master Cyclonis has not only Smaug the Dragon on her side, but access to technology far more advanced than anything we’ve ever seen!” Several troubled murmurs rose around the hall.

“And you’ll have us believe she got it from some _magical door_ to the Far Side?” the high, patronising voice of Harrier exclaimed. A few more-jovial murmurs responded, laughing like this were all some big joke. At the same time, Finn and Junko were examining the Nightcrawler chestplate on the table; when a monstrous serpentine head, seemingly composed of purple light, sprung out of the core. It shrieked viciously at the Sky Knights, who recoiled, then retreated back into the plate.

“Does that _look_ like it came from _this_ Atmos?!” Piper exclaimed. The murmurs that followed were more serious now.

“We can’t wait for her to come to us!” Aerrow insisted vehemently, regaining everyone’s attention. “We must raise an army and take the fight to Cyclonia!”

“Oh?” Harrier’s ever-derisive voice cut through the chatter. “ _Must we_?” He said to everyone: “Well, let’s not forget what happened _last time_ we followed a Storm Hawk into battle!” The murmurs’ tones became unsure. Everyone remembered the last major war against Cyclonia; they came within an inch of ridding Atmos of the Cyclonian menace forever, and it ended with the death of the greatest of all Sky Knights.

“At least the Storm Hawks have tried, Harrier!” Starling shot, poking a finger to the Terra Rex Knight’s chest. “The most dangerous place you’ve led your team is a _hair salon_.” A round of _oooh_ ’s rose as Harrier glowered on the spot, embarrassed.

“We may have lost the shipyards,” Aerrow said, “but we’ve gained the Terradon scientists.” He gestured to the broad-figured reptiles in lab coats, standing near the Storm Hawks. “With their help, we can convert every sky-fisher, transport and freighter that’ll fly; into a first-class battleship!”

“Ay, it’s a good idea,” Tritonn said, thick-accented voice sounding grim. “But with Smaug on Cyclonia’s side, we surely don’t stand a chance.”

“Don’t worry about Smaug,” Aerrow said, tone so sincere and confident that no-one could doubt. He looked over at Piper, who grinned confidently. “ _We’ll_ take care of _him_.”

Not ten seconds later, Aerrow was leading the entire Sky Knight Council out the hall’s double-doors, into the courtyard, everyone listening intently.

“And as for the Time Pulse, the Time Keepers have been working on a backup plan ever since the last Cyclonian attack.” Aerrow pointed at the Beacon Tower of Atmosia; its top had been converted into a new Time Pulse.

“This time _will_ be different,” Aerrow said passionately, stepping towards the assembled Sky Knights, “because this time, we have _no other choice_.” There was a pause as the many people from across Atmos took in his words. Then, Starling near the front, was the very first to bow down before him, hand in front of her chest.

“We fight as one,” she declared. Everyone else started following her example, bowing to Aerrow one by one.

“Dude, we’re not seriously gonna-” Stork cut Finn off with a slap to the head, before they, Piper and Junko bowed as well. Aerrow beamed as all the Sky Knights bowed to their leader, the one who’d united Atmos against evil once more.

With sundown approaching, all that remained of the free Atmos were preparing for war. Starling and Radarr were arming everyone, whilst Junko and the Terradon scientists constructed as many makeshift vehicles and weapons as possible; the streets of Atmosia taken up as a mass construction yard. Stork was experimenting on the Nightcrawler chestplate, looking for a way to bypass it, and Finn had left to recruit _certain reinforcements_. Which left Piper not only preparing to defeat a certain dragon once and for all, but learning to master a power she didn’t understand with hours left. Aerrow left Starling in charge on Atmosia, whilst he and Piper boarded the _Condor_. Piper sent a very loud and clear call to the dragon along their bond.

* * *

Smaug was circling above another burning terra, the sixth he’d incinerated in as many hours today. The screams of the dying brought him delicious pleasure, the smell of the flesh his fire cooked rising with the smoke to fill the air around Smaug-

Something suddenly reached Smaug from across the bond to Piper; blowing through his mind’s outermost-walls for the verbal message to ring loud and clear:

_You want me, come and get me!_

An image of a terra Smaug recognised flashed on his mind’s forefront, like an invitation.

Smaug was shocked for a moment at the message. Then he became suspicious, as he thought surely this were a trap Piper had set up. Yet the thought of what he would find was _so good_ , the temptation, knowing Piper would be within reach of his claw. She’d be there for him to pluck like the maidens he’d used to steal away to eat!

Inwardly sighing as he knew his mind was made up, Smaug swerved in the smoke-filled air, flying off in the general direction of Terra Xoam. After all, what mad hope could Piper or her friends possibly have to trap _HIM_?!

* * *

Lightning flashed across the bloodred sky outside. The Dark Ace twiddled his fingers behind his back with the nerves of a soldier waiting for the battle, as he looked out.

“Patience, Dark Ace,” his Master said softly, standing in the centre of the throne room. “A watched sun never sets.” The glowing tooth-crown she’d brought back from the Far Side floated between her two hands as she just stood there; seemingly experimenting with it in her ambiguous witchy ways, as she had been for hours, whilst a war was brewing.

“We should attack now, before they can mount a defence!” the Dark Ace said, an insolence in his tone that none of Master Cyclonis’ other subordinates could ever get away with. “Even with Smaug, Atmosia will never surrender!”

“I don’t expect them to,” Cyclonis cooed, her tone secretive. She never looked up from that accursed abomination she was obsessing over. The Dark Ace winced as the crown screeched and bristled slightly, like it were alive.

The crystal crown was a ring of jagged spikes like gnashing teeth, with dark orbs between said spikes that looked disturbingly like bestial eyes. Nestled amongst the spikes like a chick in a nest, was a _real_ tooth, nearly the length of a forearm.

* * *

Stork flew the _Condor_ fast towards Aerrow and Piper’s destination, the plan being to drop them off close enough for them to fly in on their rides. Piper and Aerrow spent the time they had before they’d face Smaug, practicing with their new power.

“Third time’s the charm!” Aerrow said after Piper’s focus broke, the levitating crystals falling.

“You said that three times ago!” Piper snapped; she couldn’t perfect it in time at this rate.

“Because I believe in you,” Aerrow replied. “We can do this! We just need more practice!”

Sighing, Piper tried again. The green stones floated off the Skimmer ramp once more as Piper harmonised with them. She tried to use calm without giving in to force, to maintain the harmonisation. It seemed third-third time was the charm after all.

“ _Falcon’s Flight_!”

Glowing blue, Aerrow shot into the air, soaring and doing twists around the moving _Condor_ like a meteor guided by a mad will of its own. As Piper tried to maintain the harmonisation, suddenly something foul and invasive lashed across her mind. The stones instantly fell back to the ramp.

“You did it Piper!” Aerrow exclaimed, touching back down. Piper fell backwards to the ramp in front of him. “Piper?”

Piper gasped on the ground; a nasty, unpleasant sensation seeping over her consciousness like a poison cloud. The image of Aerrow above her blurred, his voice in her ears distorted. Her whole body went rigid, a dark force violently seizing it.

_Piper found herself in a dark, foreboding landscape devoid of life; thunder and lightning crackling across the sunless sky, barren hills looming around her._

_“So sorry to interrupt…” A soft voice made Piper turn, to see Master Cyclonis standing across the dark land, grinning. “But I just had to compliment you on all the progress you’re making.”_

_“Get out of my head, Cyclonis!” Piper shouted, marching towards the witch, swinging a punch at her. Cyclonis disappeared before the blow could connect._

_“It’s like you were_ born _to do the Binding,” Cyclonis’ voice murmured behind Piper’s back, where she’d reappeared. “That’s what it’s called,” she informed Piper, who looked, shocked; “the power you’ve been wielding.” She was suddenly too close behind Piper’s head again._

 _“Of all the weapons in a crystal-mage’s arsenal, none is more dangerous, and none… more_ dark _,” Cyclonis murmured, her hood unfurling from her head eerily. Purple lightning flashed in the dark sky again._

_“This Binding…” Piper murmured, looking at her hands like she could see the power’s dark mark on them; “it’s evil?”_

_“Well, of course, my friend,” Cyclonis cooed softly, right by Piper’s shoulder. Piper looked away, as though ashamed. “You didn’t think all this power came without a price?” Piper lashed out with a swipe of her arm – at which Cyclonis vanished, reappeared a safe distance directly in front of her._

_“But don’t let that stop you,” Cyclonis cooed. “Keep practicing.” The dark world seemed to spin around them, ever closer to their faces, like the two of them were all there was. “It’ll make you strong, help you win. And in no time at all… you’ll be just… like…_ ME _.” Cyclonis spoke with Piper’s face, amber eyes filled with malevolence, raising Piper’s arms to the lightning-forked sky._

“NO!”

Piper shot up with a start like emerging from a night-terror, locks of her indigo hair sticking down on her forehead with her sweat.

“Piper! What happened?” Aerrow was right beside her. Looking at the _Condor_ ’s ramp, Piper breathed a sigh of relief, realising she was back.

“I’m okay,” she said.

“No, you’re not,” Aerrow replied, concerned. “And if this… _thing_ we’re doing puts you in danger…” At Aerrow’s words, Piper heard Cyclonis’ dark laughter echo in her head.

“ _The Binding_ …” she murmured. “It’s called the Binding.” Her eyes were hard, focused as she stood up, walking away from Aerrow on the ramp.

“Whatever it’s called, you don’t have to do it,” Aerrow said. “We’ll beat Cyclonis another way.”

“There _is_ no other way!” Piper shouted back at Aerrow.

“ _Um, approaching final drop-off for the great big death-match with the fire-breathing machine of dread_ ,” Stork’s voice called over the _Condor_ ’s tannoy. The ship slowed to a stop. Under more relaxed circumstances, Aerrow would have commented that that wasn’t a bad name for Smaug. “ _Best wishes, and good luck to all defeating the dragon and coming out alive_.”

“Come on,” Piper said, mounting her Heliscooter. Aerrow looked concerned.

“Piper, wait.” He stopped her, a hand on her shoulder. His eyes were strong yet gentle and imploring as she looked at him. “We don’t use the Binding again until we’re sure it’s safe.” Piper watched him walk past her to his Skimmer, releasing an uncertain sigh.

Aerrow and Piper rode their sky-rides forward, flying out on the evening skies; headed for the jungle terra looming ahead. Switching to land-mode on the surface and breaking to a halt, Piper could feel the familiar buzz in the air.

“He’s here,” she told Aerrow, brows furrowed.

They found the tunnel Domiwick had originally drilled was still open, going in that way. Piper lit the way with a crystal as they walked down the tunnel; until they came to the partly-collapsed cavern where the ruin of the Forbidden City stood; the underground space dark and empty save for the single sunlit beam filtering in.

“Where is he?” Aerrow questioned, eyes scanning every single shadow. Piper was also wondering where Smaug was, when a muffled but powerful roar from the outside world shook the subterranean cavern.

Several long, painstaking minutes of silence passed, no further sign nor disturbance following. Aerrow and Piper’s ears listened out and their eyes constantly looked for any sign of anything coming. Piper’s amber eyes looked at the various corners of the vast cavern, particularly the shadowed ones where anything large and silent could hide. She saw a pair of fiery yellow eyes, gleaming like pools of molten gold in the darkness, a second before Smaug’s head came slinking snakelike into the cavern from the other tunnel, followed by the rest of his huge body; the massive creature not making a sound to betray his arrival as he emerged a short distance across from the Storm Hawks.

Smaug’s glowing eyes instantly found the two, as though he’d always known they were there.

“So you came,” Smaug murmured almost softly, speaking in quiet tones that lessened the rumble of his voice to be almost soothing. Though an ugly scowl spread of disgust on his reptilian facial features when he saw Aerrow. “I was almost beginning to wonder if this wasn’t one of yours and your friends’ _crafty tricks_!”

“Leave Aerrow out of this, Smaug,” Piper murmured, voice low, brows furrowed over her eyes as she looked at Smaug fearlessly. “He has nothing to do with this.”

“Oh, I’d beg to differ,” Smaug growled, his hateful eyes never leaving Aerrow, long tail lashing behind him in the cavern. “ _He_ has stolen what is mine, taken from me and evaded the punishment for his crimes. I’d say this has _everything_ to do with him!” His eyes shone bright as he hissed at the last sentence, raising his deadly voice slightly. Aerrow didn’t say anything, nor give any betraying facial expression. His face was completely cool, only his eyes narrowing slightly. “Tell me, what ploy do you have to try and stop me, Piper?” Smaug asked, turning his molten eyes back onto her.

“There isn’t any trap, Smaug,” Piper lied fluidly, taking a step forward. “Cyclonis is coming for all of Atmos and everyone in it,” she stressed, tone sounding earnest. “And when she’s done, she’ll throw away everything and everyone that she doesn’t need anymore; _including you_. But if we work together, we can-”

“ _Enough of your lies, mortal_!” Smaug hissed scathingly, tail lashing dangerously behind him again. “Tell me why you’re really here!” He barked the command in a way that wouldn’t be refused, and Piper had no reason to with her ploy having failed.

“You have to be stopped, Smaug; once and for all,” she declared in a low, calm tone, her amber gaze level.

Smaug simply raised a brow-ridge high, cocking his head slightly to show off the gesture; then he burst into a deep, low, growling laugh. It was not a humorous sound as it reverberated through the cavern.

“And how do you intend to do that?” Smaug sneered at Piper. “My armour is like tenfold _shields_ ; no blade can pierce it! Not even our _precious bond_ can help you!” Piper felt the smallest urge to let a tiny, knowing smirk tug at the corner of her mouth.

“I heard there was one thing that _did_ pierce it…” Piper murmured, tone secretively-sweet.

Smaug’s eyes blazed bright with the anger that seized him, an earth-shuddering growl tearing loose from his throat, not liking being reminded of his previous defeat at Lake-Town. Even Piper had to flinch at the dragon’s frightening reaction. But then his face calmed as he looked on Piper for a few moments with an unnerving look in his golden eyes; a new thought seemingly occurring to him.

“Speaking of which…” Smaug purred, the very beginnings of a smirk tugging at the corners of his reptilian muzzle, his eyes holding a dark look. “Tell me, have you learned anything more about the precious bond that connects us?” Piper felt a lump forming in her throat as she tried to keep any emotion from reaching her face, gazing evenly at Smaug, refusing to give him an answer. But Smaug still seemed to take that for an answer in itself. He purred in elation as his eyes went wide, a long tongue snaking out to lick his sharp teeth.

“You have!” Smaug growled elatedly, grinning with one side of his head facing Piper. “Tell me, who, or what, was it that cast our connection between us?” Piper still didn’t answer nor do anything but levelly hold Smaug’s gaze, hoping to mislead him if she couldn’t lie to him.

“You don’t know!” Smaug purred after only 1.5 seconds, his tone slightly high in his powerful voice; almost taunting. The dragon’s yellow eyes narrowed again with an almost mischievous light, his lips curling back from his teeth slightly in a grin. “Has it ever occurred to you, Piper, that perhaps whomever gave us this link didn’t do so for benevolent reasons?” Piper’s expression slightly hardened as she felt Smaug’s words snaking over her thoughts, his hypnotic power trying to bend her to his will. “Perhaps they _wanted_ me to live, in which case, perhaps they _wanted_ you and I to use this power to _MY destructive purposes_!”

Piper had to look away from the dragon, clenching her eyes shut, breaths becoming ragged as she tried to shake his words’ poisonous hold. Aerrow was looking concerned at Piper.

“No…” Piper mumbled to herself, forcing herself to say it wasn’t true as she tried to get her head straight. “No, you’re lying!” she shouted at Smaug, who curled his lip in distaste at the remark.

“Can you honestly tell yourself that you’re not the _least bit_ interested in having such power, Piper?” Smaug murmured softly in his low voice. “ _Imagine_!” he hissed, raising his head higher up in the cavern on his long neck, eyes wide as he was himself excited by the picture. “With your power and my great fire together, we would be a _force of nature_ to be reckoned with, to turn our enemies to ash! _The world would be ours_!” His voice was rising with his excitement, booming in the cavern.

Piper hissed and groaned to herself, two hands to the sides of her head as though something were pounding against her skull. She struggled against Smaug’s words, fighting with tooth and nail to get control of herself as his words and promises snaked over her thoughts.

“Thanks for the offer, Smaug, but I’m not into world domination!” Piper yelled defiantly, amber eyes fierce as they met fiery yellow.

At her reply, the calm, almost serene expression that creased Smaug’s crocodilian face as he looked down on her; was not one of hurt nor anger, but rather of simple _disappointment_ – almost boredom even. Rather like a teacher who was disappointed by a student passing up a golden opportunity, or a child who’d been disappointed by the toy they’d received.

“No…” Smaug murmured very quietly, rumbling voice almost graceful in its softness as he observed Piper calmly. “I don’t think you are…” Then his fiery gaze suddenly shifted onto another, the mood instantly changing as a sharp-toothed manic grin spread on Smaug’s face. “Though I have to say, I _thank you_ for bringing one of my _greatest annoyances_ here for me to finish _once and for all_!” Aerrow winced, wide-eyed, whilst Smaug’s eyes were full of malice. “Oh, I would have _set the world ablaze_ to see this come!

“So tell me, _Sky Knight_ ,” Smaug spat Aerrow’s title with utter venom as his whole body language shifted; orange light shining bright in the dragon’s belly; “how do you wish to _die_?!” Smaug sprung incredibly fast, jaws wide open, the light shining up his throat as he closed the distance between him and the boy. Instantly reacting, Piper drew a short burst from the bond as Smaug passed over her, unleashing it at his golden-scaled chest. Smaug ignored the blast that barely shook him slightly, pouncing forward. Leaping into the air, Aerrow unleashed an energy-bolt from his blades at Smaug’s eye; the dragon easily deflected it by closing his eye just before the shot hit. Aerrow dashed sideways along the ground, Smaug’s huge jaws snapping shut a foot behind him. Growling in anger as he glared after the fleeing human, Smaug smashed his foreclaw into the rock, a split-second behind Aerrow. Smaug roared at the human. An invisible blast suddenly hit him in the space in the back of his head, where his spikes protected. He twisted his head round, fiery eyes blazing, to see Piper standing defiant with both hands outstretched. Lips curling away from his teeth, Smaug turned his whole body towards her. Piper tried to run, but Smaug lifted into the air with his bounding run, his hind-claw catching Piper like a mouse as he flew. Smaug’s wing-beats unleashed mighty bursts of air through the cavern as he twisted round the vast space; which was large enough for him to comfortably fly in.

“ _The girl is MINE_!” Smaug bellowed loudly in his powerful voice, Aerrow having to cover his ears from the assault to his hearing.

In Smaug’s claw, Piper tried drawing on the bond’s power again. Smaug turned a blazing eye on her, sensing what she was doing; suddenly, he squeezed her in his hind-paw tightly enough to make her cry out as her ribs _creaked_.

Aerrow had a determined scowl on his face as the dragon came twisting back towards him. Aerrow unleashed the Lightning Claw – seeing what he was doing, Smaug angled his head to let the bolt explode _violently_ on his scales in a blue-white explosion. Aerrow took the same opening to leap clear of where he’d been, down the cavern’s rocks, Smaug’s blazing gaze following him.

Piper struggled as Smaug maintained a threateningly-tight hold on her – the slightest fraction tighter and she would be seriously injured though not killed.

Gliding fast and low towards the running human; Smaug snapped his jaws at Aerrow like a shark as he came within reach, barely missing. Then in his overhead passing, lashed out his tail at the rocks Aerrow was running on, throwing Aerrow forward with the explosion.

“ _Piper_!” Aerrow threw the dark-purple stone, whistling through the air. It shot by Smaug’s huge tail. Piper’s hand caught it. Smaug growled as he looked to see what Piper was doing – a second before she vanished, leaving Smaug’s hind-claw clutching nothing but space. Roaring in bewilderment, Smaug’s gaze snapped around the cavern, looking for any sign of her. She reappeared on the rock bridge, right at the foot of the Forbidden City.

Seeing her, Smaug swooped downward at her. Piper saw him, was quickly drawing from the bond. Smaug’s hind-claws were splayed out, ready to grab her. Aerrow stared, wide-eyed. Piper blasted at the ground below her, propelling her like a rocket towards the dragon. She had one arm ready to land a punch as she hurtled towards Smaug’s face – and ran along his head past the brow of one eye, along the scaly hide of Smaug’s neck as his eye tracked her; straight towards the golden front of his thickly-built chest. The blue crystal-shard on Piper’s neck shone with an unearthly light as she leapt, and swung her punch into the clear-silver scale on Smaug’s side. The crystalline scale, previously indestructible like Smaug’s natural scales, let Piper’s whole forearm phase through up to her elbow like she were a ghost, the scale glowing white. Her arm inside Smaug’s chest, Piper channelled the power from her glowing neck-shard, shooting it into Smaug’s beating heart.

Smaug screeched loudly, immediately losing control in the air; whilst Piper kicked off of his thorax. She landed on the bridge, crouching like a cat, whilst Smaug’s off-course body crashed into the Forbidden City, reducing it to rubble. A flashing white light was flickering between the scales of Smaug’s chest, like an electrical explosion were occurring inside of him.

“ _AAARGH_!”

Smaug screamed, the sound nearly deafening the two humans as it bounced off the cavern walls. The dragon thrashed and twisted madly among the rubble, spraying chunks everywhere. The white light in his chest was shining brighter, spreading out. Hissing in pain, Smaug’s blazing gaze landed on Aerrow, eyes filled with nothing but pure, annihilating rage.

Still roaring painfully, Smaug half-flew, half-leapt from the rubble, crossing the distance to Aerrow within seconds, one foreclaw aiming to take him out. The claw missed Aerrow by many metres as it smashed down. Smaug opened his jaws to burn Aerrow to ash – only a puff of flame like an engine starting came out, the white light rapidly spreading up Smaug’s neck and face. Aerrow only had to back up two steps, as the huge dragon’s movements grew increasingly rigid and constricted – before Smaug’s movements stopped altogether. The flame-like light in his eyes faded. Aerrow felt the last puff of Smaug’s rancid breath wash over his face, six feet from the open jaws. Then the colour drained from Smaug’s frozen form, his body turning stony-grey with a horrible cracking sound.

In another moment, there was nothing but a gigantic stone echo of Smaug before Aerrow; still and lifeless, frozen in its mad, twisting, thrashing posture hooked onto the cavern rock’s precipice. A stillness hung over the cavern, before Piper slumped forward, relieved.

“It’s over,” she murmured, sighing. “ _It’s over_ …”

“Is he… _dead_?” Aerrow asked softly, looking between Piper and the petrified dragon.

Piper wasn’t sure and walked over, her footsteps echoing. She was beside Aerrow surprisingly quick, staring at Smaug’s carriage-sized head. She placed a hand on the petrified lower-lip.

“No, he’s not dead,” she said. “Just _incapacitated_ , like he was before.” She could feel the life, the consciousness, having been locked away in eternal sleep again. Only after a moment’s pause, seemingly needing a second to get over it, did Aerrow give Piper a beaming smile.

“You did it, Piper!” he exclaimed, Piper just smiling back at-

Piper stopped dead in her tracks, feeling the change come over her; the fabric, layers, the core of her very being. Eyes widening, she suddenly felt… _complete_. Like when one’s contesting thoughts all came together in perfect balance. Except it was not thought she felt unite inside of her, but bonds. _Two bonds_ , now synchronising themselves to each-other, where they’d previously reacted to each-other like repelled magnets. Piper could feel the other entity on the opposite end of her Smaug-bond neutralised; and with him, all opposition on the bond vanishing, the thread gaining harmony with her other bond it had lacked before; full control passing to her with a brilliant, glowing feel.

“Piper, what is it?” Aerrow asked. Only then did Piper realise she must have stayed stiff for too long.

“The bond…” Piper murmured, looking at both her hands as if she could see evidence of her powers’ new unison on them. “The Smaug-bond and the Binding, Aerrow!” she exclaimed, grinning with shock and awe. “With Smaug gone… they’re _united_!”

Aerrow gaped, jaw slack, his expression between wonder and caution.

Piper felt like she could do anything, like she were _glowing_ with a mix of both connections’ energy waiting to be spent. She’d been aware something had been holding her back with the Binding before, like she hadn’t been strong enough to utilise it; she’d felt the Binding taking a little of something from her each time she’d channelled crystals’ energies with it. But now, with the two links synced together, Piper could feel the Smaug-bond providing a constant flow from its well of power into her, sating what the Binding took away.

“Well, that’s just… I’m not sure what to say,” was all Aerrow could say. Before the two could think further, a voice came over their short-range earpieces, linked to their rides’ radios.

“ _Starling calling Aerrow, Starling calling Aerrow_.”

“I’m here,” Aerrow replied, putting two fingers to the earpiece.

“ _It’s time_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anyone asks, I’ll say now: yes, this is where Smaug’s role in the story pretty much ends. (Sorry!) But don’t worry, he will still have an impact on events to come; we have another four chapters to go before the story’s end, and there will be a lot of stuff happening in it!


	20. Cyclonis Rising

The Dark Ace was surrounded by rows of armed, Switchblade-mounting Talons, filling the hangar.

“Begin Phase Two,” he commanded, pointing a finger out at the bloodred skies. The Talons obeyed, all riding forward around him, switching to flight mode as they flew outside to join the armada. Smiling, the Dark Ace mounted his own Switchblade, but was stopped from moving forward by the sight of the Master standing directly in his path.

“What?!” he growled, incredulous.

“You can command the fleet remotely,” Cyclonis said, dark brows low over her eyes, staff pointed at him. “I need you here.” The Dark Ace couldn’t believe what he was hearing, his face somewhere between disbelief and outrage.

“Remotely?!” he exclaimed. “I should be-”

“ _YOU_ _should do as I say_!” Cyclonis hissed, cutting him off as she glared domineeringly in his face.

Not a second later, a stout, sickly-looking Cyclonian with blonde hair came running over. The Dark Ace recognised him as the communications officer remaining stationed at the terra.

“Master, there is no sign of Smaug; he has not returned,” the weaselly man reported. The Dark Ace expected Master Cyclonis to explode with fury at the news-

“Then we must assume that he never will,” Cyclonis said, utterly cool. “Mobilise the fleet as planned. Inform the Nightcrawlers that Operation Foam is no longer necessary; they will remain here on the terra.” The Dark Ace couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He’d been against bringing that treacherous lizard onboard with their plans, but at Cyclonis’ reaction to the news that Smaug had disappeared… The Dark Ace barely recognised his Master anymore.

* * *

Aerrow, Piper and Stork met up with the Sky Knight squadrons, who’d left Atmosia immediately, just in time to lead them into battle. Meeting the Cyclonians’ oncoming fleet in the evening skies, the enemy attacked first; Aerrow shouted the order to retaliate. Cyclonian cruisers and makeshift vessels exchanged fire relentlessly, whilst Sky Knight squadrons duelled the Talons in the sky. It was too easy, the heroes each shooting down several Talons at a time, which made Aerrow all the more cautious of whatever Cyclonis had hidden up her sleeve. When the first wave was nearly neutralised, the Cyclonians’ second wave flew into battle, led by Chief Thragg of the wallops. His fleet was small but utterly vicious, rapidly cutting the Sky Knights to ribbons.

Piper looked at her handful of crystals as the battle raged. She hadn’t used the Binding or her Smaug-bond powers since they’d been merged, but she felt eager to with the Smaug-bond fuelling her crystal-powers. Looking around the sky-battlefield, Piper saw the Cyclonians were now getting an advantage with Chief Thragg’s fleet decimating all in their path. Harrier was calling for evasive manoeuvres, the Rex Guardians barely keeping their rides airborne. It was not looking good. Piper’s reasons not to use her powers were rapidly disappearing as she looked back at her hand-

“Piper, wait!” She looked up at Aerrow’s voice. His Skimmer was floating nearby, he shaking his head in a silent order.

“But…” Piper started, protesting. “We’re outnumbered, _and_ outgunned!” Suddenly, a cheap-sounding horn blew its horrid noise, making Aerrow and Piper look upwards. A group of Murk Raider ships were approaching far overhead.

“Not quite,” Aerrow said, grinning.

“Alright, Finn!” Piper exclaimed. Through the windshields of _The Blood Crow_ at the lead, Finn was visible shooting his _chicka-cha_ gesture.

Not twenty seconds later, the pirate ships’ cannons were firing on the Cyclonians; landing several devastating hits to the Talons, and to the battle-cruisers which returned fire. The Murk Raiders even dropped landmines on the battle-cruisers, sending a couple falling to the Wastelands.

Chief Thragg evaded or brutalised every attempt to take him down, still cutting sky-rides down relentlessly. Flying after him, Aerrow shot a lightning-bolt to get Thragg’s attention. It worked. Their rides circled in the air, before charging straight. Thragg instantly cut both left wings off Aerrow’s Skimmer.

“Hang on, Radarr!” Aerrow shouted as they hurtled out of control, trailing smoke.

Piper saw the whole thing, looking between her crystals and Aerrow’s fall. When Thragg hurled his crystal-spear at Aerrow’s falling ride, Piper acted without hesitation.

“ _Storm’s Fury_!”

The golden-orange beam shot out from her hand. Aerrow was instantly stopped, suspended in the air whilst his ride fell away. Radarr safely fell onto the _Condor_ swooping in. Aerrow gasped at the power he felt coursing through him. He looked at Thragg’s spear, suspended two feet from his face; with a roar, Aerrow let the power explode from his body in a shockwave, blasting outward to the skies. Thragg’s Switchblade was instantly disintegrated, the wallop chief falling from the air.

“ _Wow_ ,” Aerrow murmured in a whisper, looking at his glowing hands in pure awe of what he’d just done and the energy that was still flowing through him. “ _Cool_ …!”

Piper, glowing with him, smiled as she kept Aerrow hovering in the air, channelling more power into him easily.

“Piper!” he suddenly exclaimed, looking back at her in concern.

“I’m okay!” Piper shouted from her Heliscooter. She felt simply _amazing_ with the Smaug-bond’s power coursing with the Binding; she felt like she could do anything, she was practically _itching_ to use this power some more. Looking round, she saw Talons hounding the Rex Guardians nearby.

As Aerrow watched, awestruck; Piper shot a hundred feet upward from her Heliscooter, hovering. She drew on the bond and her crystals’ power at once, feeling them both seep into each-other, the two bonds lining up like hands on a clock face. Spreading her arms wide, the huge, dark impression of a dragon formed in the clouds behind her, she a tiny glowing speck at its centre.

“ _Fire’s Breath_!”

The fireball shot from Piper’s hands, diagonally downward like a bullet. The Talons never saw it coming; they all cried out as their Switchblades were suddenly obliterated, sending them falling away.

Piper gaped at what she’d just done, a grin spreading on her face.

Whilst three-hundred yards away, Aerrow’s face pinched with concern as he looked up at Piper, hovering in the dissipating draconic shadow.

* * *

“Oh, no!” the Dark Ace exclaimed, hands clutched to the sides of his head as the holographic display indicated another battle-cruiser falling. “ _NO_!” He rounded on his Master, who’d been doing nothing but obsess over that crystal-crown the entire battle. “The battle to end all battles, and we are _LOSING_!” he yelled angrily. “I’m going out there!”

“ _You’ll do no such thing_!” Cyclonis hissed viciously, staff instantly aimed at his face. Then, turning back to the red-glowing crown; Cyclonis spread both her arms wide, and she and the crown hovered off the floor together, rising towards the throne room’s high ceiling. As the Dark Ace looked, eyes widening in horror, Cyclonis brought the macabre crown-thing drifting towards her head; nestling directly atop it. The crown-thing screeched, clamping its pointed spikes down on her forehead. At the contact, Cyclonis’ purple eyes opened wide, pupils dilated to pinpricks. An animalistic growl of a yell tore loose from her, resonating unnaturally like it were booming from a ring of powerful speakers. Cyclonis’ whole body went stiff, limbs spread out wide, back arched; the crown’s intensifying red glow blazed over her. Her staff fell to the floor, the light in its crystal dying. The dragon tooth embedded vertically through the crown’s front seemed to blacken like a tooth in acid, melting into the structure. Electrical energy blazed through the air around Cyclonis, like a bomb was about to go off.

“What?!” the Dark Ace exclaimed, shocked. At the heart of the building red blaze; a high-pitched laugh burst from Cyclonis’ throat, her head tilted almost to the sky as she glowed like she were white-hot. The laughter died down as Cyclonis grit her teeth, still grinning. All she could comprehend was the all-consuming urge, the rush to keep pushing through to the limit like the high of a drug.

A screaming sound tore loose to the charged air around Cyclonis; it was the kind of scream one gave when roaring with a painful high. Cyclonis’ body, and the otherworldly crown on her head, hardened; taking on a bright-pinkish crystalline texture; her clothing disintegrated to nothingness in the white light – the light’s intensity made the girl’s modesty indiscernible. As the Dark Ace winced; Cyclonis gave a screaming roar like the last push, the blinding light engulfing her whole form.

Then an explosion detonated in the chamber; the Dark Ace was instantly slammed into a wall, out cold. The shockwave tore outward from the topmost level of Cyclonia, blinding white light rippling to the bloodred skies.

* * *

Aerrow, Piper and Starling were on the _Condor_ ’s outside deck, watching the freedom-fighters’ varied cruisers and sky-rides gather. Their faces were brooding whilst everyone else’s cheering filled the air.

“Good for us and all,” Piper murmured, leaning against the wooden railing; “but that was too easy.”

“Much too easy,” Starling agreed, troubled.

“Because the job’s not done,” Aerrow said, brows low over his green eyes. Stepping forward, he addressed all the allied forces: “We’ve won the battle. Now it’s time to win the war!” He held a lightning-blade high. A chorus of cheers answered. “We fly on! To Cyclonia!”

* * *

The united Atmos’ fleet pressed into the dark, red-skied realm, no vessels present to stop them with Cyclonia’s defensive lines down. The terra itself was far past the looming crags, little more than a jagged silhouette at this distance. As they advanced closer, Piper saw smoke was billowing from the metal fortress’s topmost level. It looked like a bomb had gone off; Piper didn’t know whether or not to be concerned.

“What happened here?” Aerrow murmured, shocked by the damage.

“Huh. Maybe Master Cyclonis blew herself up with her own secret weapon!” Finn joked, though Piper caught the underlying hope in his voice. Somehow, she doubted it, narrowing her eyes as if she could pierce Cyclonia’s metal walls with them to-

_ROARRRRR!_

The sound came from the terra. Everyone’s eyes widened at the familiar roar, carrying for miles.

“It can’t be…” Piper murmured, horrified.

A moment later, everyone saw the black head emerging from the tower’s destroyed level, followed by the rest of the snakelike body. Spreading its wings, the black dragon took to the air, flying towards them. Lightning flashed across the red sky behind it. The Storm Hawks and Sky Knights stared in horror, beholding this terrible monstrosity that looked like Smaug yet somehow seemed much worse. The red clouds peeled and coiled away from the dragon unnaturally as it flew closer.

Behind the dragon, scores of dark shapes came swarming like bats from every duct and deck on Cyclonia. At the winged Nightcrawlers’ lead, Aerrow saw the Dark Ace on his Switchblade, cackling maniacally with energy-sabre held high. Following the Dark Ace’s laugh, Cyclonis’ familiar dark chuckle rolled over them, sounding like a thundershock with its new volume.

“Aerrow?” Piper looked over at him; he was staring wide-eyed at what was incoming. “Aerrow!”

The raven-black dragon flew far ahead of the Nightcrawler swarm, purple eyes shining darkly in her skull, smiling cruelly. Opening her jaws wide as light spread up her chest and neck, she unleashed a blaze of blue-white flames upon her enemies to turn them all to ash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is this the end of all hope  
> To lose the child, the faith  
> To end all the innocence  
> To be someone like me


	21. Rebellion

When the freedom-fighters had seen Cyclonis flying out in her new dragon form, Aerrow had called for an immediate retreat. Most of the Sky Knight squadrons had scattered and gotten away – save for a few whom Cyclonis’ fire-breath had incinerated and those whom the Nightcrawlers had captured right away. When news of what had happened at Cyclonia spread to the rest of the Atmos, as far as most were concerned, the war against Cyclonia had been lost again.

In the following days, Master Cyclonis – or _Dragon Cyclonis_ , as some were now calling her – was attacking terras, burning their communities and people with her fire. She destroyed every terra’s defences like they were nothing, and anything the inhabitants threw at her were useless against her dragon-scales. At one point, when one terra had put up a significant challenge; Cyclonis had proven that Smaug’s fire and physical prowess weren’t all she’d gained – a forcefield had rippled out from her huge body to deflect the projectiles, right before she’d unleashed a terrible energy-shockwave with her wing-beats that disintegrated half the population in an instant.

The Sky Knights couldn’t risk regrouping after the battle with Cyclonis flying amuck and destroying everything; which left Atmosia’s defences in tatters. It didn’t help that everyone on the free terras were panicking at the news of Dragon Cyclonis’ rampage every day; the hysteria plunged some terras into further chaos than the dragon’s arrival. Only nine days after the battle for Atmos, Cyclonis was sighted flying towards Atmosia, a fleet of Nightcrawlers accompanying her. Within moments of Cyclonis’ forces landing, the Chief Registrar bent the knee; the capital of the free Atmos had surrendered.

Afterwards, Master Cyclonis conquered other terras just as fast. Most surrendered with _minimal damage_ done when they saw the black dragon coming. There were a few exceptions, but when Cyclonis was done with them, what little population she left alive quickly bent. Meanwhile, the Nightcrawlers were hunting down not only the Sky Knights, but seemingly anyone who could be considered _associated_ with a Sky Knight – from anti-Cyclonian resistances and free terras’ members of office, to citizens who’d supported Sky Knight squadrons against Cyclonians, and even children who were found to have Sky Knight memorabilia in their possession.

For a while, no-one outside Cyclonia knew what Cyclonis did with her prisoners of war, though there were unpleasant rumours. Six weeks into the Cyclonian conquest, Cyclonis publicly showed the whole Atmos what happened to her enemies: they were thrown into a gigantic Crystal Prison, frozen like they were in a giant ice cube. Cyclonis issued a public warning to all who didn’t yield to her regime, _this would be their fate_. With each hero that fell into Cyclonis’ Crystal Prison every week as the Nightcrawlers rounded up more rebels, a little more hope fell in with them.

Seven weeks after the battle to end all battles, the last pocket of resistance in Atmos was subjugated. As of now, no-one was free. Talons patrolled every terra’s streets, while Far Side technology-armed Nightcrawlers ruled the skies above every house. Not even Cyclonia’s allies in the battle were safe; promises of protection or amnesty were being broken every day as more Cyclonian-supporting terras’ leaders were seized by the Nightcrawler street-patrols and thrown in jail. Cyclonis was tying up loose ends. All non-Talon sky-rides had been banned under Cyclonis’ new rule, and all forms of air-travel were closely watched by Cyclonian military personnel. Every last illegal sky-ride the Cyclonians gathered up was being destroyed.

Which brought the new Master of Atmos to her current speech, addressing the population of Atmosia after news of the last free terra’s subjugation had arrived.

Cyclonis’ new dragon form, standing higher than every building on Atmosia, had raven-black scales that didn’t shine but seemed to glisten in the light; just like her human form’s hair had been like. The scales on her chest were steely-grey, like the underside of a mamba. She was slightly bigger than Smaug had been, her increased size thanks to the same Far Side technology that had given her her new psychokinetic powers (which electrified the air for a hundred feet around her.) Unlike Smaug, Dragon Cyclonis had a slimmer, more elegant build, though her muscles still held terrifying power packed into every fibre. Her thorax wasn’t thickly-built like Smaug’s, and the dorsal spines and spikes on her head were notably shorter, thinner and less decorative; all of which were characteristics that identified a female of Smaug’s breed. She also had a thinner facial structure than Smaug. These differences aside, Dragon Cyclonis looked quite similar to him. Her slit-pupil eyes, blazing purple, held an unforgiving light as she looked down at the subjugated people.

“Any resistance, just like your sky-rides, will be _crushed_ ,” Cyclonis said, all of Atmosia hearing her powerful voice. She lacked the underlying growl in her voice that Smaug had possessed, though it projected and resonated the same; and the voice’s hissing-quality seemed slightly more pronounced. “The Age of the Sky Knights is _over_!”

Her eyes still looking down at the population, Cyclonis snaked the end of her long tail, curled up on the ground behind her bulk. The Cyclonians occupying the tower near the dragon saw the signal, pressing the button. The new flag of Atmos unfurled on Atmosia’s Time Pulse tower… and everyone in the streets pointed and laughed. A blue Storm Hawk sigil had been less-than-crudely painted over the red Cyclonian raven.

A low growl like a thundershock came up Cyclonis’ throat, silencing the jeering civilians. Her bright eyes bulged with rage, lip curled away from grit teeth as she struggled to keep her anger in check. If she’d thought she could feel terrible rage when she’d been human, she had been sorely mistaken. She twisted her body round to face the occupied tower, bringing her reptilian head level with the balcony.

“I want those Storm Hawks found!” she snarled threateningly at her subordinates, glowering. “Or _everyone_ will suffer!” Her purple eyes narrowed particularly on one Cyclonian. “And that includes _you_!”

The Dark Ace lowered his eyes, growling quietly to himself; he didn’t the way things were going so far in the least.

* * *

Laughter erupted on the _Condor_ ’s bridge, the ship circling some uninhabited terra in a rural part of Atmos.

“I can just imagine the look on Cyclonis’ face!” Finn laughed with his fellow Storm Hawks. Though once the laughter had died down, Aerrow’s face became serious.

“Okay, status report,” he addressed everyone. “Stork, where are we with the Nightcrawlers’ weaponry?”

“Well, there’s still no way to stop their Far Side technology,” Stork reported, “but we might be able to drive them back with my new _Nightcrawler repellent_!” He whipped out a spray-can with a toot-horn for a nozzle, bearing the Nightcrawler insignia with a red ‘no’ symbol through it. He released a green spray from the can (accompanied by a horn-toot), which instantly made everyone gag and cover their faces.

“Turn it off!” Junko exclaimed.

“Dude!” Finn groaned loudly. “That’s _us_ -repellent!” Stork pouted.

“Junko?” Aerrow asked once it was safe to breathe through his nose again. “Any word from the Wallop Resistance?”

“Nothing,” Junko reported. “I keep trying to contact them, but… when wallops go underground, they actually dig a hole.” Aerrow was disappointed. It looked like for now, all they could do was play more pranks against the Cyclonians to remind people there was still hope.

“What about Piper?” Junko asked, concerned. “How’s she doing?”

“Piper’s… _practicing_.” A concerned expression pinched with sadness appeared on Aerrow’s face. He turned, looking outside at the lone Storm Hawk, sat cross-legged on the Skimmer ramp with her back to the bridge’s windshields. After the battle against Cyclonia, Piper had just seemed to retreat into her practices with her new combined powers, not talking to the guys about much at all anymore. At first, she’d tried to get Aerrow to join, but when he’d refused out of concern over what the Binding would do to her, Piper had just started practicing her powers without him. It concerned Aerrow greatly, this was not like her at all. It had been days since she’d last spoken to anyone about anything.

On the ramp, Piper focused hard on developing her powers, forcing herself to go deeper if they wanted this power to ever be nearly enough to stop Cyclonis.

“ _Hurricane’s Wind_!” she yelled, glowing fiery-yellow. An explosion like the thunderclap erupted from the air in front of Piper, aimed towards the looming terra nearby. The great winds tore the terra’s many dead trees loose from the ground, the rocks that were hit all shuddering under the onslaught.

Piper’s face was hard as she observed her handiwork, mouth a neutral line. This wasn’t good enough, she needed more, she needed to keep going. She knew what Aerrow had said about not using the Binding, but honestly what other way did they have? She just wished he’d see it the same way, and perhaps they could be making more headway. Didn’t the guys understand what was at stake here?

“Hey.” Piper looked over her shoulder, to see Aerrow step towards her.

“Hi,” she greeted him, quickly turning her head back round. She hoped he would help her, but if not, she wanted to be left alone with her practice.

“So, how’s practice coming?” Aerrow asked, smiling.

“Slow, but getting there,” Piper replied, looking back at Aerrow. “It could be going a lot faster if we used the Binding.” A certain light within her eyes was dimming, those amber pools seeming much darker than they once had.

“Piper, no,” Aerrow said, gently enough though his mouth was in a firm line.

“Then what else is there?!” Piper stressed, frustrated. “Not only does Cyclonis have an army of Nightcrawlers armed with Far Side technology, but now she has all the powers that Smaug ever had and more! If we can’t use my powers, then what else do you suggest?!”

Aerrow didn’t reply. His face was remaining stubbornly hard, he fixing Piper with a look that was seemingly meant to be firm. He just stood up and walked back towards the ship, whilst Piper lowered her face, brooding at the uselessness of reasoning with him.

* * *

Dragon Cyclonis’ temporary ‘living quarters’ were essentially an open platform on Cyclonia’s main tower, one vast enough for the dragon to comfortably fit on. Rivets forming the skeleton for a huge dome, were all that walled the platform off from the windy skies, with workers soldering here and there. The whole thing looked like some twisted bird cage. Dragon Cyclonis’ massive bulk took up the whole platform, resting in a catlike sleeping position with her tail curled around her body, eyes closed; when the loading door into the tower hissed open.

The Dark Ace, once straight-backed and loyal, was slouching as he stepped forward. News had just come from Terra Bogaton (more specifically, the ashen wasteland that remained of Bogaton after Smaug had taken care of the Raptors). The black dragon looked peacefully asleep as the Dark Ace approached, then:

“Let me guess.” Her jaws snapped together, before one eye opened to look at the Dark Ace piercingly. “More bad news?”

“The Bogaton cannons will not be arriving,” the Dark Ace growled, voice sour. “ _Ever_.” Cyclonis’ lips curled away from her serrated teeth in an ugly scowl, a growl like a tremor reverberating. The Dark Ace was unhindered by the display, saying: “They were sabotaged – by the _Storm Hawks_!”

The moment she heard the squadron name, the dragoness’s purple eyes widened, shock overtaking her facial features – it wasn’t the expression of a warmongering empress, but a trapped, scared little girl. The show of weakness was there for only a second before it vanished, giving way to the deep, black pit of hatred that Cyclonis knew so well – the dragon’s eyes clenched shut, she bore her teeth in animalistic rage, a fearsome growl escaping her. Then she roared – the sound so close to the Dark Ace that he covered his ears in pain. The dragon lashed out at the nearest thing as she twisted round in a furious flurry, smashing her tail clean through the rivet-wall. It left a clean gash in the structure, and had shattered one worker’s body as he fell away. But Cyclonis wasn’t finished, the raging inferno that had detonated inside of her still needing something more to soothe it. Sucking in a breath, Cyclonis blasted her fire through the rivet-dome, the blue-white flames instantly disintegrating the metal at close proximity like it was nothing. Only when there was nothing left but a gaping hole seared through the metal, did Cyclonis cut off the fire; the melted rivets at the edges glowing red-hot. Her angry explosion over, Cyclonis twisted her serpentine body round. Her purple eyes, blazing with her fury, bore into the Dark Ace as she brought her head low to the floor in front of him.

“ _I am done playing games_ ,” Cyclonis hissed, teeth bared in near-uncontainable anger. Then she snapped her gaze to the bloodred skies outside, as though she could pierce the clouds with her eyes to reveal where the defiance was brewing. “This rebellion _ends_!” she yelled loudly. “ _NOW_!”

Cyclonis charged. The Dark Ace ducked with a cry, just in time to avoid her bone-shattering tail that whipped straight through the air right above him. Ramming her full body into the rivets, the dragoness smashed clean through, bursting out into the open skies. She let gravity pull her downwards for a few moments, then she snapped out her leathery wings to catch her; giving the limbs a pump as she flew towards her destination.

* * *

It was just a few hours after sunset, with people still out and about on the streets of Terra Atmosia. Suddenly, a huge shadow swept over them, disappearing as soon as it had come. As everyone looked up in surprise, the black dragon swooped seemingly out of nowhere, landing on the terra with houses crumbling underneath the weight distributed through her four limbs. The people quailed at the sight of their draconic Master, whose glowing eyes were cold and unforgiving as she looked down on them all.

“People of Atmosia,” she called for all to hear; “thanks to the actions of a few _petulant criminals_ , _YOU’LL_ be paying – with your _TERRA_!”

Cyclonis let a few seconds pass so the message could sink in. Then she slowly sucked in a huge breath, and unleashed a blazing jet of flames from her jaws, obliterating many rows of houses in her path. Men, women and children ran through the cobblestone streets as the blaze tore through several blocks’ buildings in a line, obliterating everything and everyone it touched. Breathing fire a second time, Cyclonis twisted her neck left and right, spreading blue and yellow flames in all directions, a raging cloud of heat. Many fleeing citizens were incinerated mid-run, their poses lingering imprinted in the flames for a second as they were turned to ash. A whole quarter of Terra Atmosia’s surface was visible alight in the night from far away, as the small silhouette of the dragon unleashed another echoing roar and another blast of flames.

“ _Cyclonis, stop_!” Cyclonis whirled her mad gaze round, twisting her neck, at the sound of the tannoy-amplified voice. Purple eyes glowed like a demon’s with her demented expression, the glow of the yellow fire behind her casting demonic-looking shadows on her crocodilian face. She saw the _Condor_ flying towards Atmosia, coming to hover just short of the terra’s edge, near her. “ _Leave Terra Atmosia alone_!”

“Give me one good reason,” Cyclonis growled, voice devoid of mercy as she leered savagely at the _Condor_. With her draconic eyesight, at this distance she could clearly see the Storm Hawks through the ship’s windshields, staring out at her.

“ _I’ll give you six_ ,” Aerrow responded. “ _Spare Atmosia… and we’ll turn ourselves in_.”

A sly smile spread on Cyclonis’ muzzle as she knew she’d beaten them, momentarily revelling in her victory. Faster than anyone could respond; the dragon pounced forward, taking to the air with a starting-run and jump, her hind-claws splayed as she swooped towards the _Condor_. She buried her talons firmly in the ship’s roof, only taking a moment to test her grip and make sure it was firm. Then she flew off, dragging the unresisting ship away with her.

* * *

Dawn was no more than a few hours away when Cyclonis returned to Cyclonia with the Storm Hawks – hard as it would be for any freedom-fighter in Atmos to believe they’d ever see another dawn. Cyclonis dropped the _Condor_ on one of Cyclonia’s loading bays. Dozens of Cyclonians immediately came at their Master’s arrival; they ordered the Storm Hawks out of the ship at weapon-point, then put them all in purple crystal-cuffs and escorted them away from their ship. Cyclonis had stayed the entire time, pleased beyond measure to see the Storm Hawks squadron that had been a pain in her side for too long, grounded at last. She even decided to pleasure herself by having the Storm Hawks taken to the crusher, watching with sadistic satisfaction as they saw their sky-rides being crushed on a conveyor belt. Next, Cyclonis took them to the Crystal Prison hangar to see the fate that awaited them.

The Storm Hawks stared in horror at the violet crystalline structure, so tall it nearly touched the hangar’s ceiling. It was filled with dozens of frozen people-shapes, like bits of vegetables mixed into jelly. Sky Knights, squadron-members, and almost every ally the Storm Hawks could name; all stared out, faces frozen in pictures of horror.

“My favourite souvenir from the Far Side,” Cyclonis said, looking at the structure that was slightly taller than her. “Inside it, there is no sleep, no comfort, _no time_.

“But at least you’ll be among friends,” she purred tauntingly, twisting her neck to face the Storm Hawks with a look of cruelty. “So, who wants to go first?” Aerrow was the only one who didn’t stare with a hint of horror, green eyes narrowed.

“Let’s get this over with,” he growled. Radarr whined keenly as two guards led Aerrow forward by either shoulder. While all attention was on Aerrow, Junko craned his head to shoot a signalling wink in one direction; the bulky-looking Cyclonians who were managing the hangar’s pipes, returned it with subtle smiles. Master Cyclonis didn’t notice anything off – while her eyes were on Aerrow, she could feel the subtlest changes in the air currents, but thought nothing of it with all the slight movements by guards and the captives.

“Wait,” the Dark Ace protested as Aerrow was led to the Crystal Prison’s caution line. He looked upward at his dragon Master’s face, hand on the hilt of the sabre on his back. “Let me finish Aerrow off, in battle.” An expression of contempt appeared on Cyclonis’ face.

“ _Why_?” she snapped loudly, lips curled lopsidedly from her teeth in a show of disgust as she glared fully at her henchman. “So he can slip through your fingers one last time?! But if it means that much to you, I’ll let _you_ throw him in.” Cyclonis slithered away whilst the Dark Ace frowned. Her head came very low to the floor as she approached the Storm Hawk who, unlike her friends, was suspended in a cage of violet energy in addition to her cuffs.

“Well, Piper, I have to say, you’ve come along much better than I’d expected,” Cyclonis murmured tauntingly, resonant voice soft as her lips moved three feet in front of Piper’s body. “I’m almost tempted to spare you your friends’ fate just to see how much further you could come with the right teaching…”

“Thanks, but I’d sooner throw myself on a blade than accept anything from _you_!” Piper spat, eyes filled with disgust. “But if it makes you feel better, _stealing Smaug’s look_ worked well on _you_!” Cyclonis growled angrily, lips shut-together as she glowered over Piper’s remark.

“Goodbye, _Aerrow_ ,” the Dark Ace growled, hand on Aerrow’s shoulder ready to push him over the caution line. He couldn’t keep the satisfaction to himself – even if he couldn’t finish Aerrow the proper way, he’d settle for taking as much pleasure out of this as he could. “Any last words?” he asked, leering.

“Yeah,” Aerrow murmured. “Junko! _Now_!” The wallop suddenly lashed out at three guards standing around him, swinging his cuffed wrists. The other guards moved to stop Junko, but were suddenly blasted unconscious – by the Cyclonians at the pipes. Whilst the Dark Ace was gaping, Aerrow took him by surprise with a lightning-fast kick that brought his legs out underneath him.

“ _What_?!” Cyclonis hissed loudly in utter fury, glaring at the Cyclonians who’d shot their fellow troops. They removed their headgear to reveal wallop faces underneath.

“Meet the Wallop Resistance!” Junko said. A pause lasting one second followed, before Cyclonis roared with explosive rage. She swiped her tail at the wallops – they leapt out of the way just before the huge appendage smashed _clean through_ the metal wall. The sounds of the Storm Hawks yelling made Cyclonis look back at them – Piper was breaking free of her energy-cage. Roaring furiously, Cyclonis tried to crush them with a foreclaw. Piper threw up a shield around herself and the guys a millisecond before the huge claw could crush them, instead smashing into the forcefield. Hissing loudly with her uncontainable fury and frustration, Cyclonis rounded back on the wallops, light shining up her throat as her jaws opened wide-

The wallops tore the piping on the wall free; a tirade of water exploded forth like they’d just punched a hole in a dam. The surge assaulted Cyclonis’ face, and her chest hissed at the water’s touch, her fire extinguished. The sheer force in the water-surge pushed the dragon back to the opposite wall of the rapidly-flooding hangar. She screeched furiously, eyes bulging madly.

As three feet of foamy water rushed in, Aerrow and the Dark Ace’s heads emerged, coughing and spluttering. The Dark Ace recovered before Aerrow, quickly hauling him up by the scruff of his clothes, then throwing him in the Crystal Prison’s direction. Aerrow knew when he’d crossed the underwater warning line as the huge crystal suddenly thrummed loudly. Aerrow’s crystal cuffs became magnetised, fiercely trying to drag him to the Crystal Prison; Aerrow resisted with all his strength.

“ _Diamond’s Edge_!”

The bright-blue beam shot out of Piper’s crystal into Aerrow, his body going rigid. Cyclonis, seeing what Piper was doing, made a slashing motion with one forelimb, unleashing a whiplash of energy. Piper redirected her crystals’ energies to protecting herself, the blast bouncing off her forcefield. The energy hit the wide-eyed dragoness with such force that she was blasted clean through the wall behind her, leaving a gigantic dragon-shaped hole. Her momentum didn’t stop there, Cyclonis’ body shooting outward to the red clouds – slamming hard into a single patrol-cruiser, flexible neck snapping back at an angle from the impact. The dragon slid away, instantly out cold, huge bulk falling with gravity towards the Wastelands.

To Aerrow’s awe, a jagged shaft of glowing crystal grew out from his hands in front of him, shattering his cuffs. Pointing it like a lance, Aerrow suddenly stopped fighting the Crystal Prison’s pull. He hurtled straight towards it, plunging the crystal-lance’s pointed end into its surface. Cracks instantly started spreading along the crystal structure, light shining out. The Dark Ace stared wide-eyed, and Piper raised the crystals above her head to shield her and the guys; a second before the Crystal Prison exploded, a great shockwave blasting across the hangar. The Dark Ace was slammed into a wall, instantly knocked out, as huge chunks of crystal were blown about the room.

When it was over, a huge plume of violet smoke obscured the space where the Crystal Prison had been. A bright-glowing silhouette slowly stepped out of the haze, the crystal shaft receding back into his hand. Aerrow looked amazed at the crystal-lance vanishing, right before another figure stepped from the smoke beside him: Starling.

“That was… _smashing_ ,” she commented, the two Sky Knights sharing a grin. “Thanks.” As the smoke cleared behind them, several dozen more figures stepped forth: Sky Knights and squadron-members, youngsters, ordinary folk, and the odd chicken. Aerrow and Starling grinned again, but then an earth-shattering roar from outside made everyone look up.

“Alright, we need to get airborne,” Aerrow announced to the gathered heroes of Atmos, everyone listening intently. “Get out there and take Dragon Cyclonis down!”

“Um, tiny problem,” Starling pointed out. “No rides.”

“Problem solved,” Finn called from across the hangar, looking under a loading door. He hit the button on the wall, the door rose – to unveil rows of Cyclonian Switchblades. “ _Chicka-cha_!”

Twenty seconds later, dozens of Sky Knights and squadron-members were riding out on their borrowed rides. Finn held back on the outside ramp as everyone raced ahead.

“Come on, Stork!” he encouraged the Merp. “Grab a ride!”

“No thanks,” Stork said, grinning as he tore the X-shaped chestplate free of his clothing. “ _Brought my own_.” Two buttons and a tiny lever sprung out on the plate’s inside, Stork operating the latter. Nearby, as Finn looked up; the _Condor_ pulled free of its restraints, chains breaking. It neatly landed above Finn and Stork’s heads on the ramp. Finn looked impressed, whilst Stork just giggled mischievously.

Aerrow and Piper were the only ones left in the hangar, approaching the last two Switchblades as Junko revved out.

“Aerrow!” Piper stopped Aerrow with a hand on his shoulder. Her face was harsh, almost cruel even with the lines on it. “If we’re going to do this, we need to do it now!”

“It’s too risky!” Aerrow immediately responded. Piper just growled loudly in frustration, shocking Aerrow as she stormed past him to a Switchblade; she rode out without looking back. Aerrow stared after her for a moment, then moved to mount the last Switchblade. A voice stopped him, making him look back into the hangar:

“When this is over,” the Dark Ace growled, standing soaking wet and battered in the middle of the waterlogged hangar; “you’re going to _wish_ you had jumped into that prison!” He drew his sabre, pointed at Aerrow.

Aerrow returned the Dark Ace’s glare with a low-browed one of his own. Then he turned his Switchblade and rode towards the exit. The Dark Ace sprinted forward with athletic speed as in his legs. Just as the Switchblade switched to flight mode, the Dark Ace leapt and grabbed onto the wing, maintaining a hold as it flew out to the sky.

On the red skies, Piper had quickly abandoned her Switchblade, glowing fiery yellow as she flew with her powers alone. She looked all around.

“I don’t see her!” Piper called over the rushing winds to the others. Cyclonis’ black form suddenly came whooshing out of the red clouds behind her. Piper ducked as the dragon flew over her, headed towards the other sky-rides.


	22. Going Down

The Buff Buzzards flew fast around Cyclonia, Dragon Cyclonis chasing them like a bird of prey flying after smaller birds. Whilst the dragoness was distracted, the _Condor_ and the many freed Sky Knights and squadron-members were closing in from all sides a safe distance away.

“Everyone together!” Starling shouted.

“Ready…” Finn, who was flying near Starling, counted down. “Aim… _Fire_!”

A fleet of glowing shots fired at Cyclonis, whose spiny back was to the Sky Knights. She cried out in surprise as a bright explosion of flashes erupted on her back, but when it was over, her scaly hide was left undamaged. She whirled her blazing gaze round by twisting her neck, glaring murderous at the Sky Knights.

“ _Ooh_ …” Finn murmured, wide-eyed with dread. “That is a problem!” Lightning-fast, Cyclonis unleashed a torrent of fire from her jaws in their direction. The heroes’ Switchblades split away in either direction like curtains opening, barely avoiding the blaze that roared past them. Cyclonis looked ready to lunge at them, when the tiny glowing figure that was Piper shot past directly in front of her face, her gaze snapping after the flying human. She instantly abandoned the Sky Knights to chase after Piper, leathery wings pumping hard.

“If we can’t take down Cyclonis, we do the next best thing!” Starling shouted out to everyone. “We take down Cyclonia!” The Switchblades flew towards the undefended terra. Several Rex Guardians reached it ahead of the others, firing energy-shots at the metal walls. Directly above them, Cyclonis looked downward at the disturbance, and unleashed a pair of violet energy-shockwaves with a powerful wingbeat – the Rex Guardians were reduced to skeletons and then to nothing, all within an instant. Finn and Junko winced at the nasty sight they’d just seen. Higher up in the air than Cyclonis, Piper threw another fireball from her hand to gain the black dragoness’ attention. The blast made impact on the crest of spikes on Cyclonis’ head, prompting the dragoness to look up with murder in her bright eyes. Their chase through the air around Cyclonia resumed.

“What do we do now?” Junko questioned loudly, hovering a short distance from Starling and Finn. Starling’s mouth was fixed into a firm line as she thought hard and quickly.

“Uh, guys…?” Finn murmured, eyes bulging as he pointed. Hundreds of Nightcrawlers were swarming out of every duct and deck on Cyclonia, like they had at the battle. The black masses were flying straight towards them.

* * *

Stood on the Switchblade’s wing, the Dark Ace slashed furiously at Aerrow with his energy-sabre, the redhead in the ride’s seat deflecting all the blows with his lightning-blades. Growing furious, the Dark Ace became more frenzied in his attacks – Aerrow took the opening to make a well-placed kick to the Cyclonian’s chest, knocking him back, off the ride. The Dark Ace fell, screaming, through the red-clouded air.

“ _Titan’s Might_!”

The green beam shot into him from a quarter a mile away; it was emerging from Dragon Cyclonis’ jaws like her fire, instead of from her hands. His fall halted as the power flowed into him, the Dark Ace growled bestially, glaring up at where Aerrow was flying. The redhead winced, face pinching with fear. The Dark Ace made to shoot towards Aerrow – but was involuntarily pulled away from his upwards course with a surprised cry as Cyclonis made a sweeping gesture with one wing – only her power holding her on air – taking the Dark Ace telekinetically sweeping in a wide arc. His guided course brought him flying towards several Switchblades. Seeing his Master’s intentions, the Dark Ace raised his energy-blade and swiftly cut through the group’s ranks as he hurtled at high speeds; he was eager to get this finished so he could get back to destroying Aerrow.

Seeing what was happening below, Piper shot straight towards Cyclonis, throwing herself into the dragon’s steely-grey chest front. The force with which Piper collided with her, fuelled by her strong powers, pushed Cyclonis hurtling backwards like a comet had struck her chest. Piper stopped herself after they’d flown several-hundred metres, letting Cyclonis continue flying away with momentum. She went another few-hundred metres away from Piper before regaining her control, flapping her wings to hover. She gave Piper a deathly-glare across the space between them, before suddenly shooting a jet of flames from her mouth without warning.

“ _Fire’s Breath_!” Piper brought her hands together in front of her, unleashing her own stream of molten fire. The fiery beam met with Cyclonis’ burning torrent in the air, unnaturally clashing with it. Piper’s flames cut through Cyclonis’, shooting straight towards the dragoness. She threw up a shield in front of herself with a gesture of her wings, a second before the flames could explode upon contact with her. Piper narrowed her hard eyes, face a determined picture. Then she shot herself in a beeline straight towards Cyclonis. Seeing her coming in, the dragoness unleashed those deadly wingbeat-shockwaves of hers with a panicked screech. Throwing up an arm in front of her face in an L-shaped forearm-defence, Piper cut through the shockwaves like a knife through butter, unhindered. She was upon the dragoness in seconds; Cyclonis threw out a shockwave from her body which halted Piper in the air, and then they started trading blocks and blows of energy from their hands, the air sparking with their clashing energy-strikes.

Seeing what was happening nearby with Piper and Cyclonis, Aerrow flew his Switchblade straight towards them, going further away from the Sky Knights’ and the Nightcrawlers’ fighting. He didn’t care about getting himself hurt, he was not about to let Piper get seriously harmed today – or worse yet, do something that she might never get over for the rest of her life. In his determination to get to them, he never noticed the glowing figure flying in behind him.

Piper and Cyclonis furiously traded blocks and blows in the air, both putting all they had into breaching the other’s defences while keeping their own up, neither one driving the other back for long before-

“ _Yeargh_!”

“ _ARGHH_!”

They both looked at the sound. In time to see Aerrow fall from the Switchblade, body limp like a doll, the Dark Ace’s sabre blazing as he stood atop the ride. Aerrow hit a deck jutting out on Cyclonia’s side like a doll, just big enough for a large human to fit on. There was no trace of fight in him as he lay there, groaning.

“Aerrow…?” Piper murmured, eyes wide with horror and concern for her friend. He lay there clutching himself, pathetically curling inward on his body. Piper thought to go and help her friend – then her thoughts went to the ones who had hurt him, and her amber gaze slowly drifted from Aerrow back onto Dragon Cyclonis, hovering before her. The dragoness was observing her with an unreadable gaze. Suddenly Piper felt the need, the urge, the burning desire to take revenge on the ones who had dared harm her friend – nothing else mattered to her; they needed to pay. Her face’s features came together into a furious scowl, teeth gritted as she glared angrily. Then, with a loud cry, Piper unleashed an energy-shockwave from her body, rippling outward to the skies. Dragon Cyclonis and the Dark Ace were both thrown back by the force of the shockwave, though it didn’t stop there, the explosion rippling outward to the bloodred skies. Fighting nearby, the Nightcrawlers and the Sky Knights saw the energy-ripple heading towards them. They all pulled back in a temporary halt to the fighting, putting a good few leagues between themselves and Cyclonia before they were safe from the energy-shockwave’s destructive power – at the distance they made, it did little more than judder all their rides and flight-gear like a rough wave on air.

Seeing the destructive power that Piper now wielded, Cyclonis fled; giving a downward-pump of her wings that unleashed an energy-burst propelling her upward at shocking speed. Several hundred yards across, the Dark Ace was involuntarily pulled up after her like he were on an invisible string. Teeth still bared in a terrifying scowl, Piper rocketed after the two, flying upwards by Cyclonia towards the top. She left Aerrow; she’d come back to him – and hopefully find him okay – after she’d taken care of the ones who’d wounded him.

On the deck he’d been left lying on, a trickle of blood was running down Aerrow’s sideways-lying face from the corner of his mouth, he clutching his body miserably, the strength rapidly going out of him. He was bleeding out, a small but growing red pool forming on the deck beneath him from the abdomen-wound the Dark Ace had inflicted as he pressed a fist to the wound to try and stop some of the bleeding. Groaning with pain, Aerrow forcefully turned his pale-growing face upward, to look at where Piper was flying after the dragon and the Dark Ace high above him, getting further away.

“ _Piper_ …” he murmured her name, reaching up a hand as if he could touch her, bring her back.

The Dark Ace fired energy-bolts from his sabre at the girl relentlessly, trying to shoot her down. Piper twisted slightly in the air to avoid every one that came raining down on her, never breaking a sweat as her eyes remained fixed upward. Propelling herself a little harder, Piper came closer to the Dark Ace; she unleashed a furious blast from a crystal in her hand which instantly knocked the man out cold. Dragon Cyclonis twisted her neck to look back and see what had happened. The Dark Ace’s limp body then shot with increased telekinetic speed into the dragoness’s waiting hind-paw, her toes curling around him.

Glowering, Piper unleashed a downward rocket-thrust from her two hands, bringing her closer to the end of the dragoness’s long tail. She grabbed onto it, making Cyclonis roar and twist her neck to see what was happening. Upon seeing Piper had grabbed onto her, Cyclonis started dragging her tail harshly along the surface of Cyclonia’s walls, shredding the metal violently underneath her. Piper held on, not letting Cyclonis shake her off, the yellow-glowing aura around her protecting her body from physical harm. They soon came to the top of Cyclonia, crowned by a set of huge metal prongs pointing to the sky, and Cyclonis started levelling off above the points. Taking advantage of that, Piper propelled herself forward from the end of Cyclonis’ tail, her feet skipping inhumanly along the bumps and ridges of the dragon’s scaly hide as she dashed straight for the crocodilian face. Aware of what Piper was doing, Cyclonis threw out another shockwave from her body with her wings spread wide – it threw Piper off of her instantly, but the girl fluidly stopped herself before she could hit the tower’s domed roof. The glowing human and the hovering dragon stared off across the three-hundred foot space between them. Piper was the first to attack, flying at Cyclonis fast. The dragoness tried to throw up another shield to protect herself, but Piper reached her first, slamming into her chest to throw her backwards again. Cyclonis crashed through the roof edge, falling further out to the red skies whilst Piper stayed.

The Dark Ace, who’d regained consciousness, flew free of his Master’s hind-claw, glowing fiery-orange. He hurtled straight towards the roof at lightning speed, sabre raised to finish Piper off. Piper let him come, then caught the glowing blade of his sabre in her hand, unharmed. She then grabbed the Dark Ace’s forearm with her other hand, and threw him past her in a sweeping motion, sending him crashing into one of the metal prongs’ bases hard. In the same moment, Dragon Cyclonis was flying fast towards Piper who now had her back turned. Within an instant, Cyclonis’ hind-claws tore Piper out of the air and threw her down, to crash into the roof of Cyclonia. Piper was down for a total of three seconds before she was rising back to her feet, glaring up at where the dragoness was circling. Aiming both her hands outward, Piper unleashed a blast along her arms aimed at the dragoness’s chest. It hit Cyclonis with such force that she was instantly slammed out of the air and hit a metal prong, the structure screeching and almost collapsing under the impact. She recovered and stopped herself with her own powers, several short metres before she could crash to the roof or fall past Cyclonia. Her teeth were grit as she glared at Piper, before whirling her gaze onto the Dark Ace.

“ _Speed of Light_!”

The pinkish-red beam fired into the Cyclonian man who’d formerly been down, making him body go rigid momentarily, before he glared nastily at Piper.

It wasn’t like in the Forbidden City, when the Dark Ace had taunted Aerrow with this Binding-power. He was glaring at Piper across the roof from her one millisecond – the next, Piper felt vicious strikes and punches upon her body from every possible angle as the Cyclonian moved at lightspeed to take her down. Thankfully, the Binding’s power in her and the Dark Ace which made them glow, protected their bodies from the shock of a physical assault, where otherwise Piper would be on the floor by now. After three seconds of several-dozen strikes, Piper unleashed another energy-shockwave from her body, letting her anger for the man who’d hurt Aerrow fuel her. The Dark Ace became visible again, knocked back by the blast at normal speed with a cry, slamming hard to the floor. He groaned, tried to get up – before Piper fired another yellow blast at him that instantly rendered him out cold.

Cyclonis swooped towards Piper from behind with terrifying speed, Piper sensing the incoming danger as Cyclonis’ hind-claws were splayed. She whirled round the very second before the dragoness would have been upon her, and unleashed an energy ripple along her hand into Cyclonis’ huge taloned paw. It sent an energy-shockwave blasting outward from the point of contact to the air, before the laws of physics kicked in and Cyclonis’ huge body was thrown backwards. Cyclonis hurtled with tremendous speed out between the prongs on Cyclonia’s roof, flapping her wings to steady herself. She looked up, in time to see Piper fly upon her and grab her throat, pushing her back. Twisting them both around in the air, Piper threw the huge dragon down with all her might, into Cyclonia’s roof; a tremor like an earthquake shaking the whole structure at the impact under the dragoness’s weight.

Piper glared balefully at Cyclonis’ crocodilian head, lying with the floppy skin of her jaw’s underside facing up. Nothing mattered now but ending the threat to Piper and her friends once and for all, the one who’d hurt those that mattered to her. She’d end Cyclonis first, then move on to the Dark Ace. But she wanted to see the dragoness’s eyes as she killed her. A weak rumble of a groan filtered out past Cyclonis’ jaws. Then she raised her head and neck slightly off the ground, weakly turning her face slightly to the side to look at Piper standing atop her throat. Piper raised a fist high, yellow energy blazing to it like it were a fiery comet; ready to bring it down through Cyclonis’ hard scales.

“Go ahead,” Cyclonis’ purred, voice sounding weak by her standards but still powerful at this distance. She held Piper’s gaze with her own as the girl paused. “Finish me. But remember your dear _friend_ ; he’ll die without you if you don’t help him!”

Cyclonis’ words reminded Piper of why she’d come up here and tried to obliterate Cyclonis and the Dark Ace in the first place – a light inside her that she hadn’t realised had grown so faint, she saw at the centre of the vast darkness that had grown around it.

_Aerrow!_

Piper had thought he was just badly injured and would have been okay. But now that she thought about it, she realised she must have been going at this fight for several minutes – even if it felt like only ninety seconds had passed, with the heat of it all. And Aerrow was nowhere in sight, he hadn’t come up here to join her.

Without listening the powerful dark voice screaming inside of her to make sure her enemy was downed, Piper flew off Cyclonis’ chest, moving fast to the roof’s edge. She looked past the precipice, hundreds of feet down the metallic side that stretched all the way to the rocky base. And she saw Aerrow, on the same deck far below her – in a pool of blood, lying unmoving with his eyes closed, face deathly-pale and one hand resting over his abdomen. A hand flew to Piper’s mouth as horror overtook her, she letting the rage and anger flow out of her. She forgot about everything else. She honestly didn’t know whether or not Aerrow was alive. She moved to fly straight down to him, when an energy-blast suddenly hit her from behind, knocking her out of the air before she’d gotten clear of the roof. Halting herself, Piper looked back, eyes wide – to see the Dark Ace standing, energy-sabre pointed at her, whilst Cyclonis twisted her body back to an upright position on the roof. Both of them grinned wickedly.

Reacting quickly, Piper unleashed an energy-beam from her hands at Cyclonis, thought it didn’t feel as strong without the anger or determination fuelling her anymore. Indeed, the energy of the beam and her aura, was now turning a duller yellow shade. Cyclonis unleashed her fire to counter the beam, which collapsed weakly under the blazing torrent that rushed towards Piper. Piper threw up a shield as the cloud of heat washed over her, surging past her on all sides. She could actually feel the heat searing her skin in spite of her powers’ protection against physical harm, her shield cracking in seconds. The flames ceased just before Piper’s shield could shatter – then Cyclonis swooped upon her before she could react, the dragoness snatching her clean out of the air in her hind-claw. An electrical current blazed along Cyclonis’ scales into Piper, making her scream out – the energy was laced with something else, which she could feel sapping a lot of energy from her Binding powers, weakening them even further.

Twisting in her flight, Cyclonis made towards the roof-prongs of Cyclonia. Angling her body to the side as she glided metres by them, Cyclonis held out the hind-claw holding Piper – it tore, with Piper held exposed in the taloned toes, clean through a prong’s tough metal. Piper was momentarily dazed by the massive hit, taking further damage from the scrape. Cyclonis twisted and slowed as she flew above the roof, then threw Piper down from her hind-claw, crashing into the roof. She hit it so hard that it triggered an explosion of dust from her impact.

Piper groaned as she weakly pushed herself up in the crater she’d made in the mortar. She could feel her powers growing weaker without her negative emotions, and her body getting weaker with them. Before she’d even gotten herself standing, the Dark Ace was suddenly attacking her, swinging his energy-sabre to strike at her body furiously. Piper tried to raise her forearms to shield her body from the blows, every hit dulling her aura that little bit more. Realising she couldn’t stay this way forever, Piper desperately forced another energy-shockwave out of herself – it made the Dark Ace slide a few metres back on his feet. Piper winced, horribly. The Dark Ace leapt to attack again. Crying out, Piper raised a hand and unleashed a beam to intercept the Dark Ace. His sword absorbed the attack’s energy, he standing his ground as he held the sword in front of himself.

Piper groaned, feeling her body’s strength drain out of her with her powers. When the huge shadow washed over her, Piper looked back to see Cyclonis swooping towards her; she cried out in horror, raised her free hand to try and block her.

Dragon Cyclonis swooped low enough to snatch Piper off the ground without landing, twisting upwards and diagonally in her flight. Rearing her front forward, Cyclonis smashed Piper in her paw hard into the surface of one of the roof-prongs, the dragoness’ momentum against the metal adding to the blow’s crushing force. Then, still holding a tight grip on Piper, Cyclonis pulled away from the prong, and threw her like a softball, shooting in a straight line towards another prong. Piper slammed into it with such force that her ribs would have been crushed if not for her dwindling power, the impact making a dent-imprint of her body which held her stuck to the metal. Weak and dazed, Piper had no idea where Cyclonis was, until the dragoness swooped right alongside the prong she was stuck to – her tail struck it in her passing brutally enough to brush Piper free. Piper fell, screaming, no longer able to even force her body to hover. She hit the roof hard with a violent crash, kicking up a small amount of dust.

Piper groaned weakly on the ground, body no longer glowing at all, her powers fully depleted. Her muscles and bones ached all over, she felt like pressing up on her hands would be a considerable effort. She didn’t have to try, before a hand roughly grabbed her and pulled her up from behind. Craning her neck weakly, she saw the Dark Ace’s leering face within a foot of her own as he held her standing by the scruff of her neck.

“ _Titan’s Might_!” Cyclonis, circling just beyond the roof, yelled. The green beam shot into the Dark Ace, who roared inhumanly at the contact. Piper’s face pinched with horror – here, in the Cyclonian’s grasp, she could feel the terrifying power radiating off of him like the hum of an engine. His face in front of hers turned nasty – before with one throw of his arm, he sent her flying with high speed straight towards the roof’s edge. The left side of her body slammed _excruciatingly_ upon the edge of a tall wall-base, before her momentum carried her from there twirling, and falling over the edge. She screamed, arms and legs flailing, as she fell hundreds of feet towards a bone-crunching end far below the red clouds.

Flailing her arms, Piper tried uselessly to grab onto anything that might stop her freefall – anything jutting out on Cyclonia’s rough metal side that was whooshing upward two feet from her. Her two hands caught on an uneven spike poking out at the border between two metal plates – she was jarred in her momentum with such force that her arms were nearly torn from their sockets, making Piper cry out in agony at the strain to her muscles. Though she didn’t dare let go despite the unbearable pain, knowing there was nothing but freefall and then the Wastelands waiting below her.

“ _Piper_ …?”

Piper looked down, and saw Aerrow’s ramp several metres diagonally across from her. His eyes, which had dark circles under them, were only half-open and looked misted-over as he strained to raise his head, looking at her.

“Aerrow…” her voice was broken as she murmured his name, staring at him. This was all her fault, she had done this. If she’d listened to Aerrow when she should have, hadn’t been so obsessed with her powers, then none of this would have happened.

A familiar high laugh, sounding slightly distorted with the voice’s resonant projection, made Piper crane her neck to look up. Cyclonis was flying towards them, flapping her wings as she hovered above. Her lips were pulled back in a mad-looking grin, her purple eyes were bright with triumph.

“Your friends have failed!” Cyclonis boomed triumphantly, leering down at Aerrow and Piper viciously. “This dragon is still flying, and you two are about to _crash and burn_!” She turned her face upward to the Dark Ace, who was hovering nearby.

“ _Inferno’s Blaze_!”

A fiery-orange beam shot from Cyclonis’ jaws into the man. A ball of fire erupted in either of his hands. He cackled maniacally, looking like some dark angel of fire with the orange glow. Clinging to the wall, Piper closed her eyes as she tried to call on her powers again.

“Hurricane’s Wind!” Nothing. If anything, she actually felt weaker after the failed attempt from the energy it took out of her. “ _Fire’s Breath_!” she tried again – she felt weaker again. Cyclonis laughed loudly, making Piper look up.

“You lasted longer than I expected, Piper!” the dragoness said, grinning in a way that was devoid of empathy. “I’ll be missing our little _get-togethers_!” She shouted at the Dark Ace: “Finish them!”

“That… _will be my pleasure_ ,” he growled deadly-quietly, looking back at where Aerrow was bleeding out and Piper was holding on for life.

“Aerrow…” Piper managed to find the force in her voice to call out to Aerrow, though her voice trembled with her despair. “ _I’m so sorry_ …” She said those words with her last strength, meaning them; they were here because she hadn’t listened to Aerrow, and now this was how it ended. Her eyes closed, she was barely even aware of her fingers losing their hold…

“Piper!” she heard Aerrow’s voice call out as she fell, but she didn’t react, knowing it would soon be over. She was in freefall. And then something caught her by the wrist, jerking her body to a stop. A moment passed. Slowly opening her eyes to see the clouds hanging far below, Piper realised she was no longer falling. Weakly craning her head, she looked into Aerrow’s dark-rimmed green eyes. No longer on the ramp, he was holding onto it by the edge, whilst his other hand was holding her wrist; he was holding them both up. Piper could see the strain in his ghastly-grey face, she knew that this would kill him, and wanted to tell him to let go. But he didn’t release her.

“If we’ve gotta go down,” Aerrow murmured quietly as if they were the only two people that mattered, his expression soft and gentle; “at least we’re going down together.” Despite her weakness, the hopelessness, all of it; a ghost of a smile managed to break on Piper’s face. If this was how it had to end, she’d be resigned to dying with him.

A moment passed. Suddenly, Aerrow’s eyes widened as something changed. He felt the energy brewing like a storm within him, making him gasp slightly. His body, which had been wracked with pain, weakness and the approaching cold bite of death; suddenly felt renewed. He was aware of the wound on his chest closing up and disappearing under his clothing. A bright blue glow was emanating from Aerrow’s whole body. Looking in surprise, he saw the glow spread from his body along his arm into Piper.

Piper’s eyes widened as she suddenly felt rejuvenated, strength returning to her body rapidly. She felt her energies flowing into Aerrow, and _his_ flowing back into her, in a closed circuit. Her own personal energies that had been drained to a faint ghost of light over several weeks of overusing her combined powers, suddenly flared to life, being replenished rather than leeched by this new two-way exchange. And that wasn’t all: the Smaug-bond and the Binding that had been the source of all this, were no longer syncing, but _merging_ into each-other in a new way the likes of which she couldn’t begin to fathom at once. Looking at the crystal-shard that hung on her neck, Piper saw it was glowing an even brighter blue than either she or Aerrow were.

“Goodbye, _Storm Hawks_ ,” the Dark Ace murmured triumphantly as he slowly hovered closer to the teenagers; leering down at them, ready to finish what he’d started when he’d struck down Lightning Strike eleven years ago almost to the day. Spreading his arms, roaring wings of fire beat furiously behind his back. Chuckling darkly with his head reared back, he didn’t notice the building blue light coming from the adolescents, until it exploded outward in a rippling flash; it washed over the Dark Ace and Cyclonis as harmless as a summer breeze, though they both shielded their eyes against it.

When the Dark Ace looked again, he saw not two human teenagers, but two dragons, hovering side-by-side on flapping wings in front of him. One was male and one female, and both their facial expressions were hard and fierce as they glared at him. The Dark Ace gaped, shocked. The male dragon narrowed his bright leaf-green eyes. The female’s eyes, as orange as molten amber, were wide yet held a ferocious light. A single scale at the bottom of her neck, abnormally shaped like an arrowhead or a shard, glowed bright-blue. A moment passed. Then she yelled with a familiar voice:

“ _LIGHTNING STRIIIKE_!”


	23. Good Luck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we have it, folks; the final chapter!

Cyclonis looked, astonished, as the Dark Ace shot past her under the lightning-bolt’s blast. The two new dragons stared, slit-pupil eyes wide, the blue light in the male’s chest fading. Then they looked themselves over, as though taking in every draconic aspect of themselves for the first time. The male had bright-red scales, but the scales on his chest were a steely silver. Whilst the female had indigo scales that glittered like an early morning sky, and the scales on her chest shone bronze. Both were about half the size of Dragon Cyclonis.

“What just happened?!” the male exclaimed with Aerrow’s voice, looking over at his companion.

“I have no idea!” the new dragoness replied, a grin spreading on her crocodilian face. Across from them, the Dark Ace was rebalancing on the air, whilst Cyclonis looked incredulous.

“I thought you said this was _OVER_!” the Dark Ace yelled at his Master.

“That’s not supposed to happen!” Cyclonis said. “Only Perfect Attunement can let the Binding flow both ways!”

“Guess you aren’t the Master of _everything_ , Cyclonis!” the dragoness that had been Piper spat, making Cyclonis looked back at her. Their eyes locked: molten orange was strong and fierce, whilst blazing purple raced with the raging denial that comes to a tyrant losing their grip on their power. Cyclonis hissed furiously, gritting her teeth.

“ _TITAN’S MIGHT_!” she screeched, the green beam shooting into the Dark Ace. The man yelled manically at the power entering him, looking at dragon-Aerrow.

Piper flew at Cyclonis too fast for the empress to react, throwing her full body-weight into the larger dragon with her shoulder. The two dragons hurtled together, hind-claws locked as they twisted and twirled in a flurry of wings, scales and tail. Out of control, their course brought them hurtling towards Cyclonia’s metal side. Cyclonis was the one whose back smashed into it, the impact jarring her enough to let Piper tear free with her momentum. The indigo dragon flew away to the red skies, beating her wings hard, sending a trumpeting roar back at the other dragoness. Cyclonis heard it, her blood rushing with a lust for violence at the instinctively-recognised call of challenge. She pushed herself away from the wall with her wing-limbs, wings beating hard as she chased after Piper.

Twisting her flexible neck, Piper saw Cyclonis was catching up surprisingly fast, the bigger dragon easily dwarfing her. Cyclonis got close enough to bring her huge head alongside the end of Piper’s tail, snapping her jaws like a shark. Piper twisted, flying away from Cyclonia. A grave mistake, Cyclonis thought, as Piper was now downwind of her. She wasted no time breathing a torrent of flames, letting the wind carry it ahead. The fire washed over Piper’s back, making the indigo dragon grit her teeth in pain. Though the flames couldn’t harm her in her new form, the heat still seared on her scales painfully. Without thinking, Piper tucked her wings at her sides and nosedived to escape the flames, not noticing the black dragon swooping a distance away.

Piper had barely stabilised on the air, when Cyclonis suddenly barrelled into her, their momentum carrying them several-dozen metres, before Cyclonis planted her full weight on Piper’s back with her hind-legs. Piper screeched, the sudden weight forcing both of them down; but was cut off when Cyclonis’ crocodilian jaws clamped over her neck’s scales. Piper was frozen, not daring to move– in this position, Cyclonis could kill her with one strong twist of her head. The two dragons hurtled downward through the clouds, one firmly atop the other holding her immobilised – Piper noted that Cyclonis didn’t seem to have any thought of killing herself. Panic racing through her being, Piper felt her power well up inside her, manifesting as a bright-blue glow across her scales. The smaller dragoness unleashed it with a cry, giving it form as a blast – Cyclonis was instantly throw off her falling quarry.

Spreading her wings, Piper quickly levelled off. She twisted round in a U-turn, hovering as she glared at the dragon far across from her. Recovering, Cyclonis looked astonished, purple eyes wide as they met Piper’s. Rage overtook Cyclonis’ facial features, eyes narrowing.

“ _THIS ENDS NOW_!” Cyclonis screeched. Reeling her body, Cyclonis unleashed twin energy-shockwaves from her wings at Piper, travelling fast. Spreading her wings wide, Piper threw up a forcefield, the energy-ripples bouncing right off. Cyclonis screeched, wide-eyed, a split-second before the blast hit her. The black dragon shot backwards, crashing through Cyclonia’s outer-wall, causing an explosion-plume of dust. Piper’s orange eyes were cool and strong as she flew forward.

A growling groan escaped Cyclonis’ chest as she weakly crawled over the rubble in the hole; dust filling the air around her, _almost_ enough to choke her lungs. Reaching the hole-lip, Cyclonis’ eyes opened, secondary lids remaining partly pulled over them. She saw Piper hovering directly above her, bronze and indigo scales glittering.

Piper opened her jaws, sucked in a huge breath, chest and neck glowing. Then she breathed a torrent of flames as orange as her eyes, bathing Dragon Cyclonis and the metal structure around her in it. Cyclonis raised a wing-arm against the fire, trying to shield her face against the scale-searing heat. Above her, the metal girders of the tower’s frame were melting in the fire. After a few seconds, it came crashing down with a defeated groan. As the metal crashed loudly against scaly hide, Piper cut off the flow from her jaws, looking at what she’d done.

Cyclonis hissed and groaned weakly against the cage of partly-melted metal that had collapsed on her, encasing the black dragon tightly on all sides, giving her little space to move so much as a finger.

* * *

Aerrow and the Dark Ace circled each-other like wolves, neither one breaking eye-contact first. The Dark Ace attacked, swooping at Aerrow. Reeling his serpentine body, Aerrow kicked the green-glowing human away with a hind-paw like he were a football. Halting his momentum, the Dark Ace growled in rage, then took out his energy-sabre and shot forward again.

The human furiously slashed and struck at the silver scales on Aerrow’s compact chest, doing little damage as the dragon just pulled backwards. Floating higher, the Dark Ace raised his sword to swing at Aerrow’s long neck – before he could, the red dragon’s jaws closed on the glowing human from above his head. Though the Binding’s power made the Dark Ace’s body resistant to physical forces’ damage, Aerrow was still careful not to crush him between his sharp teeth; as he twisted his neck and hurled the Cyclonian from his jaws like spitting out unwanted food.

The Dark Ace halted his flying-momentum again. He didn’t hesitate a second before launching himself back at Aerrow, acting like a rabid dog. The human made to try slashing Aerrow’s eye out, energy-sword raised. Twisting his body, Aerrow swiped out a large wing-arm, deflecting him like a baseball.

Recovering again, the Dark Ace growled menacingly at Aerrow, the human and dragon’s eyes locking. The expression on Aerrow’s crocodilian face was calm but challenging, _warning_ ; scaly brows knitted low above his eyes in the middle of his head, lips pulled into a single firm line on his muzzle. A second passed. The Dark Ace shot forward. Aerrow beat his wings harder, climbing a few metres upwards. The very split-second the glowing human came within ten metres, Aerrow lashed out his long tail, spiky end like a cracking whip – the Cyclonian and his sabre were separated, the red-glowing energy-weapon spinning in the air.

The Dark Ace’s back crashed into Cyclonia’s wall, the impact leaving a foot-deep dent. Gasping as he recovered, the Cyclonian looked up. His energy-sabre fell through air, spinning all the way – into Aerrow’s waiting jaws, which snapped vertically shut behind it. The dragon’s gullet made a swallowing motion; a bright-greenish light shone between the scales on his chest like a furnace lighting up. Growling through gritted teeth, the Dark Ace shot off Cyclonia’s wall like a rocket – so consumed in rage, he had no conscious thought of the cool expression on the dragon’s face.

In the very _split-second_ the Dark Ace was within five feet of his chest; Aerrow grabbed the human with a foreclaw, spun 360 degrees in his position with the momentum, threw the Cyclonian from the claw back the way he’d come. He crashed into the top of Cyclonia’s roof in an explosion of rubble.

A moment passed, the dust dissipating. The green-glowing Dark Ace burst from the rubble roaring, face bloodthirsty. He saw Aerrow fly forward, hovering a hundred diagonal metres away by the roof. The greenish light relit in Aerrow’s chest, building up his neck. Sucking in a breath, the dragon breathed a jet of red fire laced with green, at the roof-prong directly above him. The flames quickly melted the section of the metal they touched, sending the huge upper-half of the prong falling towards the Dark Ace. He made to fly away, a split-second before the huge structure crashed down upon him.

A few moments later, the Dark Ace crawled out from under the collapsed metal shaft; no longer glowing, one trickle of blood running from his mouth’s corner, dragging his whole body with his fingertips.

“Had enough?” The Dark Ace heard Aerrow’s voice taunting. He growled in utter anger at the red dragon hovering nearby, smiling smugly.

“ _Do something, you arrogant witch_!” the Dark Ace yelled furiously over the roof’s lip at the trapped dragoness. Cyclonis was pulling herself free of her cage, bending the metal away from herself. Growling lowly, Cyclonis looked around, purple eyes scanning Cyclonia and the skies, calculating thoughts racing in her brain. Her eyes landed on an open hangar on a further-down level of Cyclonia. A nasty grin spreading on her muzzle. She jumped from the hole, nosediving, opening her wings to glide off as she came by the open hangar.

“There’s nothing… _I can’t bind… TO MY WILL_!” Cyclonis screeched at the top of her voice, reaching out a wing-limb towards the door in the hangar. Only her magic kept her floating as she reached out with every fibre of her being, taloned fingers curling in a grasping motion in front of her. The Far Side door’s physical door-pane that had reasserted itself, flashed and vanished back to the rippling violet portal, the device humming violently. Cyclonis pulled with all her strength on the potent energy of the environment on the other side of the doorway. At first, only a thin, transparent trickle like red mist seeped from the door; but as Cyclonis pulled further and the energy furiously gathered, it quickly developed into a blazing red flow. Grinning, Cyclonis gestured with her spread wings’ hands; directing the flow curving upwards, shooting with building speed towards the roof.

The Dark Ace screamed like he were being seared with an iron as the red energy shot into his back. The distorted growl that tore from his throat made Aerrow wince as he and Piper looked on. The Dark Ace flipped into the air above the roof, glowing red with raw power that Aerrow could _feel_ brushing against his scales. Roaring inhumanly, the Dark Ace shot straight towards him. Aerrow focused, face going cool again. The moment the Dark Ace reached him, Aerrow deflected his attack with an outward kick of his hind-leg. Halting his momentum, the Dark Ace looked at Cyclonis.

"More!" he growled rabidly, eyes devoid of reason. " _MORE_!" Cyclonis reached her foreclaw towards the doorway again. The rippling energy-pane twisted and contorted, its violet colour darkening, before the energy-flow burst through again. The blazing red energy shot directly into Cyclonis’ chest, her whole body glowing red with the tremendous power as she blasted it out her other foreclaw, into the Dark Ace.

“ _More! More_!” He continued roaring, even though he seemed to be _scalding_ with the red power; voice sounding less and less human every time. “ _MORE_!” Cyclonis continued drawing and pouring into him. The Dark Ace roared with the force of the power building in him. The air crackled violently around him. Aerrow and Piper could sense the overloading build-up, feel it in the air on their scales. Cyclonis was pouring the ocean into a teacup.

“Cyclonis!” Piper shouted pleadingly. “ _Stop_!”

Cyclonis didn’t stop. She didn’t even seem to hear as she continued ploughing energy into the Dark Ace. The Dark Ace screamed harder, sound itself distorting around him. As Aerrow and Piper looked, his whole body turned a molten-golden colour, rays shone through cracks forming in his skin like a star was inside him. Pure-white beams shone from the Dark Ace’s eye sockets as the loudest distorted scream yet tore from his throat. His whole body arched in the air. Then he exploded. The shockwave rolled right over Aerrow and Piper who shied their eyes away, blasting across the skies above Cyclonia. When the two dragons looked again, there was nothing left of the Dark Ace – the explosion dissipated with a crackle, leaving clean, empty air like after a lightning strike.

“I can’t believe it…” Aerrow murmured, gaping in disbelief. “He’s gone…” Looking from where her henchman had exploded to the other two dragons, Cyclonis’ expression was unreadable.

“Looks like your plan failed,” Piper spat. No-one noticed the flashing coming from the hangar.

Pure whiteness flashed over the energy-pane within the Far Side doorway, crackling sounds and a building thrum cutting through the air. Cracks slowly spread on the doorframe's surface. Cyclonis looked down at the hangar, Aerrow and Piper following her gaze – a second before the doorway’s frame burst apart in a blinding flash. A gaping hole of dark-purple energy exploded outward through Cyclonia, its birth obliterating half the terra instantly, before it started sucking and pulling everything in. Swirling red clouds began draining out of the air like blood being leeched by a vampire, and what immediately remained of Terra Cyclonia collapsed into the swirling vortex’s centre.

* * *

The Sky Knight squadrons were driving the Nightcrawlers back, disabling their Far Side armour with a _special ammunition_ the Storm Hawks had found; the battle’s tide had turned in their favour. Suddenly, a brilliant violent flash caught everyone’s attention, making them all look to see a gigantic purple vortex consume Cyclonia. Suddenly, their sky-rides were all being pulled in the vortex’s direction. Though much weaker at this distance, the pull still had an effect, winds howling through everyone’s hair in the vortex’s direction.

“Everyone, pull back!” Starling yelled over the howling wind. The Switchblades complied, clearing the phenomenon’s range. The _Condor_ struggled, though Stork successfully got it away with enough effort.

“Wait,” Junko said, eyes wide with awe as he looked over at Finn, flying near him. “We… _did it_?!”

“Dude, Cyclonia’s going down!” Finn cheered loudly, emphasising with a thumbs-down.

* * *

The three dragons fought against the colossal forces seeking to pull them into the vortex. Piper and Aerrow threw up energy-shields to keep the vortex’s pull off of their bodies – it still sapped at those, but Aerrow and Piper could flap their wings hard enough inside the protective bubbles to slowly but surely get them away. The two were making their way to a safe distance from the vortex, when Piper twisted her neck; looking back at the dragon behind who was on the verge of being pulled into the hole.

Cyclonis was thrusting her wings furiously, using all her strength just to avoid falling into the vortex. She tried unleashing an energy-burst at the hole to propel her forward, which only got her a fraction of her body’s length ahead.

Feeling herself falling backwards, her resistance against the pull failing; Cyclonis screeched, purple eyes wide, hurtling towards the vortex’s maw-

Something suddenly stopped her. Opening her eyes, immense wind-forces still whipping around her; Cyclonis saw Piper’s reptilian face and scaly chest above her own, molten orange eyes looking down at her. Aerrow was directly behind Piper, flapping his wings furiously, hind-claws gripping Piper’s shoulders tightly. Both Piper’s hind-claws were locked with Cyclonis’, holding on tight.

Though the vortex’s pull wasn’t too bad for Aerrow and Piper with their shields constantly regenerating, Aerrow struggled to give enough thrust with his wings to keep all three of them from falling in. Piper tried expanding her own shield around Cyclonis, but it didn’t work – her shield threatened to crumble entirely. But Piper wouldn’t give up, not after the darkness that she’d just been through!

“Hold on, Cyclonis, we’ll get you out of here!” Piper yelled over the howling winds that could compete with even a dragon’s voice.

“ _And then when happens_?!” Cyclonis, who’d simply stared astonished into Piper’s face until now, roared. “You put me on trial as a war criminal?! Imprison me for life?! Or better yet, get me _executed_?!” Cyclonis whipped her head to look into the violet maw which seemed to consume everything in Piper’s field of vision. When Cyclonis looked back, she was grinning darkly, purple eyes glowing wickedly. “I have a better idea!”

Cyclonis sucked in her breath, light travelled up her neck, all one second before breathing her flames directly into Piper’s face; it blinded and disoriented the smaller dragoness, who cried out. The indigo-scaled hind-claws’ hold on the black-scaled ones slipped.

“No! _CYCLONIS_!” Piper screamed as the black dragoness fell. Her grinning face, her purple eyes, were the last Piper saw of her before she vanished into the vortex’s maw. The remaining two dragons stared, before Aerrow spoke:

“Piper, let’s go!”

He hauled Piper away with him from the event horizon. Pulling out of his grip; Piper and Aerrow’s wings flapped furiously, slowly gaining speed the further they got from the vortex, rocks and rubble continuing to hurtle past them.

* * *

Beyond the vortex’s reach, the heroes of Atmos cheered loudly. After so many years, Cyclonia, the menace that had plagued Atmos for far too long; was finally vanquished. Starling wasn’t cheering, looking ahead with worried eyes.

“Where are Aerrow and Piper?” an equally-worried Finn said, hovering nearby.

“ _Incoming_!” Stork yelled sharply over the _Condor_ ’s intercom.

The Merp spied two familiar-shaped silhouettes flying away from Cyclonia’s destruction. “ _Dragons, coming this way_!”

Seeing the draconic shapes slowly approaching, Starling, Finn and Junko armed their weapons first.

“ _Dragons_?” Junko echoed, looking wide-eyed. “But the only dragon here is Cyclonis!”

Starling, Finn and Junko’s faces pinched with puzzlement momentarily. Then their faces broke into shocked expressions, eyes wide as the small dragons reached them. Both dragons were smaller than Cyclonis or Smaug. Approaching, they curved in aerobatic up-and-down wave-patterns gracefully. Swooping and twisting around the _Condor_ , the two dragons’ shapes morphed and shrank in shimmering blue flashes; transforming into their human forms, clothes intact and all, as their feet touched the _Condor_ ’s Skimmer ramp. The roaring chorus of cheers started anew, filling the air with its triumphant sound as Aerrow and Piper both looked out, grinning.

“Dude!” Finn exclaimed as he came in, landing on the ramp. Blue eyes wide, he was at a loss for words. “That is _AWESOME_ …!” On Aerrow and Piper’s other side, Stork sauntered onto the ramp with his usual shuffling stride. Giving an excited chirp, Radarr leapt into Aerrow’s arms, the redhead returning the hug.

“Dude, we just… _we actually did it_!” Finn exclaimed, insanely wide-eyed, Junko flying in behind him. “We _took down Cyclonia_!” Radarr on his shoulders, Aerrow looked out at the crowd of Atmos’ defenders, roaring their cheers. He smiled for a moment, then his expression turned stern.

“Don’t get used to the celebration,” Aerrow told his squadron. “No matter where Cyclonis is, she’s still a threat. And it’s the Storm Hawks’ sworn duty to go after her!” He pointed at the vortex faraway, devouring the bloodred clouds and rocks of Cyclonia’s realm.

“Um… I really don’t think the _Condor_ is going to get through there in one piece,” Stork spoke, pointing. Piper reached into her satchel, pulling a particular crystal out.

“Oh, it’ll fit,” she said, grinning. “ _Trust me_.”

“Storm Hawks!” They all looked as Starling swooped in, Switchblade transforming to land-mode above the ramp. “Do you still have room for another member?” the purple-haired Sky Knight asked almost sheepishly, face earnest. Aerrow gave her a grin.

Two minutes later, a shining-blue beam shot from the crystal in Piper’s hand, travelling several leagues to the centre of the violet vortex. When the beam reached the dead-centre, the powerful winds parted within a radius around the beam’s length, projecting a protective funnel.

“Stork…” Aerrow gestured to the helmsman on the bridge whilst Piper maintained the beam; “take us through.” The Merp shot his friend and leader a two-finger salute through the windshield. The _Condor_ rode forward, and it flew into the swirling purple vortex, ship and vortex disappearing in a flash.

The seven Storm Hawks didn’t know how long their ship hurtled through that warping space, purple colours without discernible shape flashing by all around; before they emerged in a flash, sailing under the green-tinged skies of a whole new world. Aerrow, Piper, Radarr, Starling, Finn and Junko stared in pure awe on the Skimmer ramp. High, beautiful chirps of creatures they’d never heard before reached their ears, the wind brushing serenely through their hair.

“ _Dude_!” Finn exclaimed at the sight before them. Great, steep valleys of tall, proud rock; amongst which glittered countless lights all the way to the rivers. Beyond that, rose a tall, emerald spire from which brilliant light shone out to the new world, flying silhouettes flapping against the green light.

Radarr chirped enthusiastically, and Aerrow grinned, looking at the new world they had to explore.

“This is gonna be fun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so ends ‘The Storm Hawk and the Dragon.’ I hope you guys all enjoyed reading this.
> 
> For anyone who's interested, after the three-plus-year wait since I originally published this story on FF.net, I'm pleased to inform you that a sequel is officially in the works, and I expect it'll start publishing by spring if not earlier. Keep an eye out! ;)


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